A/N: Set between Seasons 3 and 4 after Jesse comes back to be The Flash of Earth-2.

Harry Wells sat in his office at STAR Labs flicking through personnel files. Each face and profile displayed on his screen had something wrong with it. Too new, too old, too many degrees, not enough. He wondered why he had even hired these idiots in the first place. Wasn't there one intelligent person to be found in Central City?

"Dad?"

Harry looked up to see Jesse standing in the doorway. He gave her one of his rare smiles. She was the only person allowed to waltz in and out of his labs as she pleased and no matter what he was doing, she was always free to interrupt him. Harry waved her to come sit down. "Yes, Jesse?"

Jesse came into the office and sat on the edge of his desk. Harry hated it when she did that, but she still did it anyway. He had long ago given up trying to get her to stop. He pursed his lips all the same.

Jesse seemed not to notice. "So, I was thinking about how I'm this world's Flash now, ever since Jay Garrick got revealed to be Hunter Zolomon and Zoom and I got my powers."

Harry clenched his jaw. He accepted that his daughter had powers. That, unwittingly, he had caused her to develop them in the first place. And he accepted that she wanted to help people just like The Flash did on Earth-1 did. He also accepted that she was old enough to make her own choices about her life, but he didn't like it.

"And I was thinking that I might need some help," Jesse continued, "after all, Barry has a whole team of people to help him. Cisco, Caitlyn, Iris, Joe, Wally, they all work together to protect Central City and a lot of the time it takes the whole team just to get the bad guy. Here on Earth-2, however, I don't have a team I just have-" Jesse looked at Harry, the word you dying on her lips.

"Me," Harry finished her thought. It didn't really sting, he knew that he alone was not enough to provide all the support his daughter needed in this superhero endeavor. Even as smart as he was, he couldn't be everywhere at once, couldn't compensate for every eventuality. "I've been thinking about the same thing."

Jesse relaxed. "Really? That's great because-"

"Which is why," Harry interrupted Jesse before she could suggest something he didn't like, "I have compiled a list of thirty-seven individuals who have various, complementary skill sets. We will weed through this list until we come up with the ideal combination of skills to act as a support staff for Earth-2's Team Flash."

Jesse sighed. "Dad," she said, giving him that look she always gave him when she thought he was being overbearing, "don't you think I should be the one to assemble my team?"

Harry looked at her for a long minute before tapping his computer screen and transferring the docket of profiles he had selected to his mobile device. "I think I have access to the brightest minds in the world, many of whom already work for me. If you are going to be The Flash you have to have the very best and brightest working for you." Harry looked back at his daughter. She was so young still. He needed to make sure she wouldn't end up hurt. "To do otherwise would most certainly lead to disaster."

Jesse raised her hands in a defensive gesture. "I get it, you're still trying to control everything even though it has nothing to do with you."

"Jesse," Harry started, "it's not like that."

"Sure seems that way." Jesse crossed her arms and glared at Harry. There were times when Harry wondered where she got her quick temper from.

"Give these people a chance, Jesse, that's all I'm asking. We can interview them and see what their strengths really are." Harry had an idea that Jesse probably wanted to invite her friends to be on her team, and if he could avoid that he would consider it a win.

Jesse inhaled deeply through her nose. "Fine, but I get to veto anyone I don't like for whatever reason."

"Fine," Harry assented.

"And you have to allow me to add some candidates to the list too."

"Jesse-" This was exactly what Harry was trying to avoid.

"No, Dad, I get to have a say about who is on my team, I want to add some names."

Harry saw the look in Jesse's eye, it was the same look, the same stubbornness that was so often in his own eye. He wasn't going to win this one outright. "Fine," he agreed. "You can also submit some names for interviewing."

Jesse seemed to have been prepared for a longer fight because her face brightened immediately. "Really?"

Harry nodded. "Yes, we'll do this together."

Jesse beamed and threw her arms around Harry's neck, kissing him on the cheek. "Thank you, Dad, I'll get a list of them to you by this afternoon."

Harry embraced his daughter. Anymore there was a part of him that was afraid each time he hugged her might just be the last time. He didn't take her hugs for granted, each one was priceless to him. "We can start the interviews tomorrow."

An alarm blared on Jesse's phone, causing her to pull away from him and check the alert. "I've got to go, Dad, Flash business." She briefly flashed her screen to him showing a news alert about some children stranded on an amusement park ride before blasting away at top speed.

Harry looked at the door his daughter had just disappeared through trying to ignore the tightness around his heart and not think about what sort of danger Jesse might be running towards. The overwhelming need to do something gripped him so went to his workbench and began tinkering on one of the dozens of projects he had in various states of development. It was better for him to think about mechanical problems than dwell on the various means and probabilities of Jesse being injured or killed.

Irina Adler stood in front of the STAR Labs building taking in it's edifice. She had been to four worlds now and on each of those worlds there was always a Harrison Wells, and the majority of the time he was a brilliant scientist and the founder of STAR Labs. Sherloque had been the exception to that, but all the other Wellses, no matter what country they were from, always went on to found some version of STAR Labs. Locating it was the easiest and most certain way to track one down. Now, all she had to do was find a way to run into him. Or more precisely, make him run into her.

As she took a step towards the door a violent breeze gusted past her sending scattered litter flying into the air. Turning, Irina tried to see what it was that had caused the sudden draft of wind but there was nothing there. She supposed she had best be prepared for anything, she'd heard that this earth was one of the many that were afflicted with metahumans because of Harrison Wells' hubris and overconfidence. Irina smirked to herself, a Wells' absolute arrogance was one of the most appealing yet simultaneously most annoying personality quirks. She wondered what this one would be like.

Entering the facility she made her way to the receptionist's desk. She knew it would be impossible to get a meeting with Harrison, after all he didn't know he was fated to fall in love with her. Yet. She did know, however, how to get him to come to her.

Spotting the reception desk, Irina made a beeline for it. Time to lay some bait. Leaning over the desk she noted the young man staffing it was wearing a pair of noise-canceling headphones and had a mechanical engineering textbook on the desk half obscured under his keyboard. Obviously a student trying to find a foot in the door to doing research at the most prestigious laboratory in the world. Irina waved her hand in front of his face to catch his attention.

"Can I help you?" The receptionist looked up from his book, he sounded a little sheepish at being caught. This version of STAR Labs must not get many visitors mid-morning. The name plaque on his desk read Henry Hewitt.

"Yes, Henry, I need to pass on a very important message to Harrison Wells." Irina was more than sure that this pitch wasn't going to get her very far.

"Is that so?" Henry didn't look like he was interested in her story at all. More than likely the man was overqualified and underpaid for the task of babysitting the front door.

Irina smiled sweetly. "Yes." She fished out a card with an intricate series of numbers and letters written on it. "Just give him this, tell him it's from a friend from another earth."

The receptionist looked at her skeptically, but took the card. Irina watched as the man looked at the complex cryptogram, his brow furrowed, before flipping the card over and reading the reverse side. On it, written in Harrison Wells' own handwriting, familiar to all who worked in the lab, were the words Give this to me at once and signed with Wells' own signature. Henry paused, the skeptical look transforming into one of confusion, then, finally, astonishment. "Yes, of course, I will get this to him right away."

Irina smiled. "Thank you."

"Can I take your name and contact information so that Dr. Wells can get in touch?" Henry hurriedly pulled up a note application on his work computer.

Irina tapped the card in his hand. "Everything Harrison needs to know is on the card. He'll know how to find me." Turning on her heel she exited the building making sure to give the security camera a wink on the way out. Once outside she set a timer on her watch. It was always fun to see how long it took him to find her.

The polite, yet timid rap on the door told Harry that the person disturbing him was not anyone he cared to see. He ignored it, focusing instead on the work in his hands.

There was a moment's silence before another rap followed. Harry let out a growling sigh of frustration. "What?" he called across the room, making no move to rise.

The door creaked open a barest fraction. "Dr. Wells?" The voice was that of a timid intern. Harry tried to recall her name. Moira Morales, he remembered. She was a student from the university completing a required amount of internship hours. She had to be pretty smart to make the cut to be a STAR Labs intern, but her shy nature annoyed him. He hoped she had a good reason for interrupting him. More importantly, whoever had sent her to interrupt him had better have an even better reason.

"Yes." Harry kept his eyes on his work.

Moira entered the room, obviously intimidated. She fidgeted with the sleeve of her blazer, her eyes focused only on the floor. "Dr. Wells, I was instructed to give you this card, I was told it's very important."

Harry rose from his workbench and went to take the card from Moira. "The likelihood that this is actually important is infinitesimally small. Who told you that it was?"

Moira seemed to cower. "The receptionist said to tell you it comes from a friend from another earth."

Harry took the card in one brusque movement. His eyes traveled over the cryptogram, a small spark of curiosity forming in the back of his mind. He turned the card over taking a moment before he recognized his own handwriting. He looked back at Moira. "Who left this for me."

Moira swallowed. "The receptionist said that the woman said that everything was on the card and you would know how to find her."

Suspicion stirred in Harry's mind. "Okay, you can leave." Moira practically ran for the door, as she reached the handle he changed his mind. "Wait."

"Yes," Moira sounded even more afraid than ever.

"What is your field of study?"

"What?" Moira seemed completely taken off-guard.

Harry gave a deep sigh, he hated repeating himself. "What is your field of study? What are you studying at the university? What do you do when you are not here?"

Moira seemed to wither under his condescension. "Micro-molecular bio mechanics." Her voice was little more than a whisper.

Harry considered it for a moment. "Okay, now you can leave."

Moira nodded and scurried out the door. Before the door even finished closing Harry was already thinking about the symbols written on the card. The cryptogram was a complex one, and it most certainly held the key to this strange woman's identity. His thoughts flashed to Earth-1, this had to have something to do with Barry and his group somehow.

Heading to his desk he drew out a few sheets of paper and began the process of decoding the message. It was complicated and intricate, but also astonishingly beautiful. His suspicions only deepened. This message was most certainly some kind of bad news.

"What's all this?" Jesse asked as she returned to her dad's office seeing boards full of calculations positioned around the room. The situation with the kids trapped in the amusement park ride had been easily taken care of. This, on the other hand, looked a lot more complicated.

Harry looked up from his work. "Oh good, you're back, I need your help with this."

Jesse had to smile and shake her head a little. That was her dad when he had his mind set on a problem, all business. "What is it?"

"This," said Harry, waving his hands at the boards that ringed the room, "is a cryptogram of the highest order. As near as I can tell it requires a twelve step logarithmic deciphering key. I've never seen one this difficult before."

"Where did you get it from?" Jesse's eyes wandered the boards, she thought she spotted one or two places where her father's decryption key could be improved.

Harry ruffled through a few piles of papers on his workbench before he located what he was looking for. "From this." He thrust the card into her hands before going back to his boards.

Jesse looked down at the card, the cryptogram was intriguing, but the words written and signed in her father's handwriting was the real puzzle. "Did you write this? Is this some kind of message?"

"No, I didn't write it, at least I haven't yet written it, but whoever sent this card to me knows why I did this, if I did, and that's why I need you" Harry pointed to her, "to help me decode this." Harry tapped on the board he was standing closest to.

"And you don't know who sent you the card?" Jesse's gaze flicked between the code on the card and the various calculations her father had already done, she noticed at least one additional place where his results could be tweaked for accuracy.

Harry directed her attention to the screen on the wall and motioned for the screen to play. Security footage captured earlier in the day showed the full conversation between the mysterious woman and the receptionist.

Jesse looked from the card to the woman winking at the security camera. "Who is she?"

"I don't know, but we're going to find out."

Irina was waiting in her favorite place in Central City, the steps of the museum. It didn't matter which earth she was on, Harrison Wells was always somewhere with a nice museum. A correlation she hadn't appreciated enough at first, but was beginning to think might have some significance. Two days had elapsed since she had given the card to the receptionist, she had come here at the appointed time on the previous two days (in the unlikely event that this Harrison was lightyears smarter than the previous ones had been) but so far he hadn't come. Today, she thought, would be different.

And there he was. It was the middle of the day, a man with a business to run and science to conduct should be too busy to be out and about, but he had made time for her. She picked him out of the crowd of regular museum-goers easily. Dressed all in black he was approaching the museum with the caution of a soldier entering enemy territory. Slung over his shoulder was a weapon of some sort. Irina had to smile, he was certainly prepared for anything, but was he prepared for her?

She waited patiently as he climbed the steps. Seeing him again for the first time sent a thrill through her. He was as handsome as ever. She controlled her impulse to call out to him, to run into his arms, she knew he wasn't ready for that.

Harrison caught her eye, she nodded to let him know that she was the one he was looking for. He paused a few steps from her, his hand resting easily on the weapon at his side. "So," he said as he looked her up and down, "you're the one who sent the message."

Irina smiled. Reaching her watch she pressed the timer function to stop the clock. Glancing at the face she looked back at Harrison. "Two days, fifteen hours, twelve minutes and thirty-seven seconds. Good work."

Harrison paused, she knew she'd caught him off guard. "What do you want from me," he said.

Irina couldn't help letting her eyes drift over the contours of Harrison's face and down his torso. "You wouldn't be here if you hadn't decrypted my card, my intentions haven't changed in the last two days."

Harrison took a step closer to her. "Your card said only that you want to help me. I want to know who you are and what earth you come from. I want to know if you're a time-traveler. I want to know what you want from me. I want to know why you're here." His eyes were hard and his gaze steely. Irina tried to ignore the butterflies in her stomach.

"Harrison-"

"Don't call me that."

Irina ignored the interruption. "I know this may sound strange to you, but you need me. I-"

Irina was abruptly cut off again as a gust of wind and a flash of light wooshed by and in the blink of an eye a young woman with brown hair and blue eyes was standing at Harrison's elbow.

"Jesse," Harrison growled, "I told you to wait-"

"I did wait, Dad, but she seems fine." Jesse gestured to Irina. "She's not a metahuman and she's not even carrying a weapon."

Harrison turned to Jesse, Irina momentarily forgotten. "You don't know that, we have no idea what earth she's from. She could be carrying a thousand different kinds of microweapons that will kill us and everyone in a ten block radius before you can count to ten."

"Are you sure, Dad, because I can count pretty fast.

"I know you can count fast," Harrison sounded exasperated, "that's not the point. You know what I mean, she could be dangerous."

"I know I've circled the perimeter three times already and I haven't seen anything suspicious. She's all alone and she's unarmed, there's nothing to be afraid of."

Irina wasn't really following this rapid argument, she was still reeling from the one word Jesse had said almost immediately. "Is this your daughter, Harrison?"

Harrison turned to face Irina once more. "Don't call me that, and yes," he glanced at the young woman, "this is my daughter, Jesse."

"And your wife?" Irina hadn't really expected Harrison to be married, if anything the Wellses of the multiverse usually had trouble attracting a long term partner.

"She's dead." A matter of fact statement delivered as curtly as possible. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"I just like to know who I'm working with."

"You're not working with anyone yet, we don't know anything about you." Harrison was sticking to his guns, quite literally. He really didn't want to trust her.

"Sure we do," Jesse cut in. "She wrote all about herself on that card." Extending her hand she added, "Pleased to meet you, Irina."

"Likewise," said Irina, shaking the girl's hand firmly, "as I said on my card, I'm Irina Adler and I've come to help."

"That's great because we need all the help we can get," said Jesse. "We're having so much trouble recruiting a team but I think you might just be what we're looking for."

A team, that was an interesting bit of news. Most likely they were looking for a team of geniuses for a new and covert scientific endeavor. Irina quickly took in the younger woman's appearance thinking back to how she'd appeared so suddenly in a flash of light. This might be something she could leverage.

"Jesse," Harrison cut in, using her name as a reprimand.

"Dad, we need help and she's here to help us." Jesse's tone was that of someone who was used to trying to reason with someone unreasonable. "Isn't that what you did with Barry and the others on Earth-1?"

"What I did on Earth-1 is irrelevant. We don't need her help, not until we know more about her." Harrison's hand was still on his weapon.

"How can we learn more about her if we don't talk to her?"

Irina decided to interject before her presence was forgotten due to familial bickering once more. "I can answer all your questions and will, but why don't we find somewhere more comfortable to talk?"

"Fine." Harrison glowered

"Perfect." Jesse smiled.

Irina pointed out into the city. "STAR Labs is this way, I believe."