A/N: Let me just say, thank you SO SO much for all of the amazing reviews, I'm constantly blown away.
I can't believe it's been so long since I updated, I feel like a terrible person. I'll try to update more from now on and I expect you guys to hold me accountable. ;)

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter as much I as did writing it. It's a bit slow, but things are definitely starting to get faster. (see what I did there?)

Rain beat down on every window and the roof of S.T.A.R. Labs sounded like it was being assaulted. Cisco Ramon sat at the computers, looking awfully determined as he pounded away at the keyboard, his searches kept coming up empty. What happened? The day before when he'd searched all of this up he'd had hundreds of results, now they were all gone. His conspiracy theorist mind started going slightly mad as he ran through all of his suspicions of the government wiping minds and internet searches.

He leaned closer, studying the empty list, as if he could see through the screen to find the 'truth' behind it all. A slap on the desk next to him made him jump and he swivelled his chair to see Harrison Wells watching him carefully.

"You've been staring at that screen for almost three hours, Cisco, rest your eyes," a sandwich was clutched in the outstretched hand and Cisco gratefully took it, with a sheepish smile.

"Thanks, boss. You're right," he rubbed his eyes, looking for all the world like a sleepy child. "I need to get some coffee and stretch my legs," he chuckled and then stopped after glancing at Dr. Wells, looking at him from his wheelchair.

Wells watched Cisco go and then smirked, shaking his head. He moved up to the computer and looked carefully at what Cisco had up, his fingers danced across the keyboard for a minute, breaking down firewalls for government systems that Felicity Smoak had probably never heard of. Well, maybe, she might have been the one to build the firewalls, you could never tell with Felicity.

He knew that Tess was dead, he'd been telling himself over and over for nearly 24 hours now, but he just had to look into it. Bringing up the case file from the investigation into her death, he took a deep breath, preparing himself before delving into his past.

The death of Tess Morgan was ruled an accident by police on Saturday...

He took a deep breath as her picture appeared. Right clicking on the photo, he clicked 'copy' and then brought up a new tab, typing in one of the many government search engines that Felicity had given them access to. He almost felt guilty for it, but he needed to know.

Running the photo against the system, an article appeared, relating to the group called S.H.I.E.L.D. He frowned some and clicked on it. Whoever had wiped the articles earlier must have missed one, but what did Tess have to do with them? While he may have a degree in computer sciences, he was completely lost when it came to how the Internet worked. So he carefully scrolled down some, searching for her face. The face that he'd fallen in love with, the face that used to bring him such joy, that face that he'd claimed all his own and had caressed so often. It was her face, the one he'd married and loved with every fiber of his being.

As he scrolled, he tried to figure out what the article meant. It seemed to be about the members of the group, photos taken from security cameras during one of their 'missions', most of them were scrambled, but one photo had caught a hazy image of a face.

Her face.

The caption on the enhanced photo read 'Who is this woman?' His heart felt a pang when he read it, he'd been asking himself the same question. Who is she? Or was she? She wasn't who he thought she was, but he probably wasn't who she'd hoped he'd turn out to be. He was...a villain. He was the Reverse Flash.

If she'd met him now, she'd never find it in her to love him. She had always been so innocent and devoted to the law and everything that was supposedly right. His stomach felt empty at the look that he could only imagine she would give him, it also gave his chest a hollow feeling that echoed and ached.

Shaking his head a little bit, he tried to clear the image from his mind, the tears that were building in her eyes. At least in his mind, that's how it would happen.

He stared at the image for a bit longer, before it started to settle in deep. She was alive. His Tess was alive.

The click of heels pulled him out of it and he closed down what he'd had open and quickly brought up a game of solitaire, pretending as if he was bored. When Caitlin came into the room she looked at him curiously.

"Dr. Wells," she sounded surprised. "What're you doing at Cisco's computer?"

He looked up, as if he hadn't realized she was coming. "Oh, just- I was, um..."

"Solitaire?" she had a bemused grin and he noticed how her eyes crinkled when she smiled.

Her innocent face made him feel bad for lying to them, before he'd tried not to think about it, but after knowing how ashamed Tess would be, how young Caitlin, Cisco and Barry were started to register in his mind. They didn't deserve to be deceived, but it was for the best, the 'greater good' as some would say.

"Yeah," he chuckled dumbly. Caitlin shook her head laughing as she moved off, setting her purse and coat on a chair in the corner. "Where were you? You've been gone for awhile."

"First of all, you need to get out more. Second of all, I was at Jitters, with Barry. Iris seemed really jealous when she saw me with him, I'm not sure what that's about. I think she's being entirely unfair, both to Detective Thawne and to Barry, she really needs to just pick one guy."

While Caitlin rambled, Wells noticed how there was a spark of anger in her eye and the way she was standing defensively, as if to protect herself. It seemed like Iris wasn't the only one who was jealous, but Wells knew Caitlin to be smarter about herself when it came to her emotions, she was very good at pretending like she didn't care. He'd watched her struggle for months after Ronnie 'died', she'd stood at the desk that she was now hunched over and she'd swallowed her tears, hollowed her tone and emptied her eyes of all emotion. And it killed him.

That really was the hardest part of the charade that he'd been upholding for years, lying to Caitlin and Cisco was the hardest thing he'd ever done in his entire life. They were like his own children sometimes. No. He couldn't let himself become weak, they weren't his children, they may have been Harrison Wells' children once, but he was not Harrison Wells. Harrison Wells was a fictional person invented by him and he couldn't let himself get that confused. He'd done it too many times already.

"Dr. Wells?" Caitlin reached out to touch his arm.

The man before her jumped and looked up, alarmed. "Yes? I'm sorry, I was thinking. What were you saying?"

She shook her head. "It doesn't matter, it's fine. You finish your thinking, I'm going to go...find a bagel or something," she walked down the hallway as her voice rattled off in his ears. She was probably just going to go repeat the entire scene to Cisco, get to the point where Barry was making moon eyes at Iris during their coffee and then she'd start backpedaling, saying things like 'Forget it' and 'It was nothing'.

When Caitlin was well and truly bothered by something, she'd often start pretending like it never happened, by actually claiming that it never happened. She was a bit of an open book like that.

Wells turned back to the screen, the mouse lingering on the tab with the photo of Tess open. Why was he doing this to himself? What was the point? He closed all of the tabs without looking at them again. He needed to stop.

He directed the switch on the remote for his wheelchair back and the chair moved away from the desk, he needed to go back to his office and he needed to get real work done. He moved across the lab to the hall, where he made his way to the entrance to his private office. A thought occurred to him.

He might have to pay a visit to SHIELD, instead of just sending them threatening messages, a face-to-face may be in order. Then he might be able to question them about Tess, figure out what they'd done with her, to her.

Disappearing into his office, he swallowed thickly and vaporized all of the tears that had been on the brink of spilling down his face. Tess Morgan. The angel of a woman that he'd planned on starting a family with, he thought he'd never see her again, but she was just outside of his grasp, seemingly teasing him by always being at the back of his mind, it was haunting.

Running.

Running free, no cares, the wind breathing on his face. That was what Eobard loved to do. He loved to pretend that there wasn't a world waiting for him to do something, that there wasn't a whole world expecting things from him. He wished he could spend the rest of his life running. He never got tired. When he ran it was like the world slowed down, things around him moved impossibly slow and he could do anything.

The sun was a glinting figure perched on the horizon, waiting to fall down into the abyss and plunge this land into the dark. The burnt orange sand was a coat across the ground, a footstep could taint it for but a minute, before it'd disappear, swept up by the wind.

Each time Eobard's foot touched the ground, sand would kick up around him in a swirling cloud, before falling back to the Earth, in an undulating attack on his heels. But no matter how many times the ground tried to claim him, tried to suck him up and never let him see the light again, he'd escape it. Because when he ran, he was free.

As he crossed the desert, he was nothing but a yellow blur of a person, with red speedforce lightning echoing off of his body, in a streak that was suspended in the air. It was as if he was making a mark on the sky, leaving his imprint behind as he ran towards freedom.

But he wasn't running towards freedom, he was running towards a plane. A plane that was on the other side of the desert and was preparing to take off, it's engines groaning and spitting. The thrusters on the bottom side of the plane were kicking up and starting to lift the plane into the air.

Eobard had to stop that plane. He'd just watched the 'agents' gather onto it, entering the vessel from the hangar bay and disappear within it and now the door was closing up. He ran faster, which wasn't a problem for him, his blurry shadow becoming less and less coherent.

He would catch up with that plane, it was what he had to do to get answers. He had to get answers, about her, about Tess, about SHIELD.

He got closer to the plane, close enough to reach out and touch it, but he didn't. Instead, he lept into the air, arm outstretched, reaching towards the back hatch, which was almost closed up. The speedforce propelled him forwards and his fingers victoriously closed around the back of the bay door. He lifted himself up, to avoid getting hit by the door, and he slid into the hangar, sliding down the door and falling to the ground.

The group of agents that were standing in front of him, were all staring shocked at the lump on the floor. This man had just appeared, no one had seen him come in. And he was dressed in bright yellow and black - identical to the man who had left them a threatening message simply hours before - leaving them even more confused.

But the team's confusion was not remedied as the man rose to his feet and looked at all of them with a strange grin, his cowl pulled off his face and hanging behind his head. A whisper rose from the group, from the young man with the curly hair and the sweater whispered to the woman next to him. Apparently they were in awe, they weren't as concerned as everyone else, as they exchanged a few simple words.

"That's Harrison Wells!"

And that's a wrap on that chapter, hopefully I'll get the next one out soon.

Did you guys see last night's episodes? OMG. Both of those episodes were mind blowing, and half the things that happened on Flash I've actually suspected since episode one, but actually seeing them play out killed me. Suffice it to say, those episodes were SO good!

Anyways, please read and review, until next time.
God Bless,
-Nicci