Song: Circles, Greta Svabo Bech

A new day only brought upon a new tragedy.

If Rachel hadn't come back to S.T.A.R. Labs, it wouldn't have happened.

If Rachel hadn't been a meta, it wouldn't have happened.

If Rachel hadn't dated Harrison Wells, the impostor, in the first place; it wouldn't have happened.

If she hadn't been in the picture at all…

It was quite a few ifs, but then again, if she'd really never been a part of the team, they would've found out sooner or later and that would've definitely been worse for them. Harder to take. More difficult. Maybe it would've led to even more horrible events taking place. Or maybe not.

Maybe…

She was actually in a good mood when she appeared in the cortex, bringing Caitlin her favourite as she'd made a stop by the Jitters on her way.

Just so it happened that Jay was also there and it was about time Rachel introduced herself.

Jay Garrick had no idea she was a meta.

He smiled at her and reached his hand out and the moment she shook it, her face paled until it became pure white.

"Rachel?" Caitlin asked with a frown on seeing her friend's terrified expression. "Rachel, is everything all right?"

A lot happened at once.

Harry entered the cortex, immediately seeing what was going on and, on the contrary to Caitlin, immediately putting two and two together and pushing the panic button on his phone, signalling the Flash.

In that very moment, Rachel screamed, feeling herself being grabbed and moved with such a speed that her insides were squirming and her head spinning.

"Barry, that's Zoom!" Harry yelled the moment the Flash appeared, having just missed Jay and Rachel, though he'd seen them disappearing and didn't think twice to follow, sudden wind stirred in his wake.

Caitlin covered her face with her hands, looking at Harry just when Cisco entered the cortex.

"Are you guys, ok?" he asked in confusion.

He was so fast. So, so fast. And she wasn't an idiot. She'd just had a vision of Zoom, which meant that Jay Garrick was Zoom; a brilliant deception once more orchestrated by someone the team thought they could trust. Her guts, however, told her to trust Wells. It might be too late for her already, but at least now the team knew Jay's real identity. It was crazy to think that he was both the Flash and Zoom on Earth 2, but then again, he was probably a psychopath, creating his own hero to fight, to take away hope from the people of the other central City, just to bring it back. He would surely kill her or use her as leverage to get to Barry; both awful, unthinkable options.

To Rachel's shock, something collided with Zoom and he let her go, causing her to painfully crash to the ground. She definitely skinned her knees, but so far, she was still alive and hadn't broken anything, which seemed to be a miracle all in itself.

She screamed again once something grabbed her right back, but she quickly realized that this person felt much, much different. It must've been Barry.

In no time she was back in the cortex, staggering on her shaky legs, feeling someone's arms holding her up. Barry was gone again and Harry Wells was the one helping her now, soon leading her to a chair.

From there she had an excellent view at the outside cameras, watching in absolute and utter distress as Barry tried to battle Zoom. Tried since the other speedster seemed to have an upper hand.

"He cannot do this alone," Caitlin pointed out, wearing the same horrified expression.

"He's not alone," Harry contradicted and grabbed his gun, already heading to the exit himself before anyone could stop him.

In the end he did manage to shoot Zoom, but it didn't help much, so he was forced to retreat and…

"Barry!" Rachel screamed, seeing a horrible blow Zoom stroke Barry with, straight into his spine. The Flash fell to the ground like a rag doll. "NOOO!" It was too much. She still wasn't over her vision and what shortly followed when… Was it already happening? Was this it? Was this the end of Barry and also them all as without the Flash, they were just sitting ducks?

Zoom grabbed Barry and disappeared, leaving them all confused until there was a whoosh of air again and he was suddenly standing in the middle of the cortex, holding the Flash up by his neck.

"Barry!" this time both Rachel and Caitlin screamed, horrified of what they were seeing, tears streaming down their faces, fear as palpable as ice in their veins.

Just before Barry was dealt with the final and fatal blow, Cisco managed to shoot Zoom and the speedster fell to his knees, but unfortunately disappeared mere seconds after.

"Barry!" Caitlin rushed towards her friend, doing her best to help him whereas Rachel was just sitting there, stunned, not able to make any sense of her emotions.

Once again her shock was so big that she felt like someone hit her over the head with a hammer; her senses dampened, ears ringing as she watched Caitlin, with the help of Cisco and Joe, getting Barry onto a cot and then doing everything she could to save him.

He would live, probably only thanks to his superhealing powers, but… his spine was broken and Cait wasn't able to tell how long it would take for him to heal or… None of them really wanted to think of an if scenario, so they pretended there was no other alternative.

Rachel had already dealt with a speedster in a wheelchair with no ability to walk before – or so he'd said. Back then she hadn't even been aware of who he truly was. Still, seeing Barry like this brought up all the memories she'd tried so hard to bury. The memories of the particle accelerator explosion, of Harrison landing in a hospital… Added to that, the vision that would never stop haunting her… She couldn't take this anymore. She wanted to run.

Harry was pissed, reacting with nothing but pure rage to Zoom escaping and Joe nearly attacked him for it since he didn't seem to be worried about Barry at all.

"Who's Jesse?" Cisco chose that moment to ask and suddenly, silence fell.

As it turned out, this Wells, indeed, had a hidden agenda, though not as horrible as his predecessor. His daughter, the only family he had left, had been kidnapped by Zoom and Harry had tried to set her free ever since, eventually talking a trip to Earth 2 in order to seek the Flash's help.

Soon after the whole truth was revealed, Wells retreated, leaving the cortex and Rachel followed, needing to get away from the awful sight of Barry. It was too much and she refused to deal with it right now.

For lack of a better thing to do, she went after Harry.

"Are you ok?" she asked him, able to only imagine how awful he must've been feeling, knowing his daughter was somewhere out there at the mercy of a monster. "Ah, sorry… it was ridiculous of me to ask that," she then immediately rectified. "Of course you're not ok. Your daughter is still missing."

He didn't say anything to that. He just turned around and looked at her.

Suddenly and to her great astonishment, he grabbed her and pressed his lips hard against hers.

She could tell this wasn't about feelings and care, this was filling up a hole and feeling something else other than despair – something she'd been very familiar with as of recent. And she actually kissed him back because she still felt just as lost and powerless towards everything that already had and would still happen.

"Who was he to you, really?" Harry suddenly asked when stopping the kiss, yet his face barely millimetres from hers.

"Who?"

"The other Wells."

"I think you know. You're not stupid."

He almost chuckled at that remark.

"I'm a genius," he quickly supplied with, but then a frown marred his face again, quickly followed by distress.

In response, Rachel wound her arms around his neck and brought him closer again, meeting his lips and kissing him. The body that now pressed against her, the mouth that returned the kiss rather bruisingly and the hands that moved down her spine; it all felt strangely familiar, like remembering a long-forgotten dream, but still, it was somehow different, like trying to fit pieces of a puzzle that one realized in the end didn't match at all.

Yet, she still wanted to try… letting him pull her towards his room in the Labs and, as the door closed behind them, letting him pull her shirt up and over her head and then discard of his sweater. He crashed his lips against her immediately after, undoing her bra and replacing the cups with his hands, squeezing nearly bruisingly when he pushed her toward the bed. Her pants were also soon pulled down her legs along with her underwear and he fumbled with his belt, in no time fitting himself between her legs, not sparing her as he entered her fast and possessively, seeming to push all his fear and grief into her along with his sudden desire and let her use him for that, too.

They were both hurting, both terrified and tonight they sought comfort within each other. What was wrong with that? Rachel asked herself. Yes, it still didn't feel like the Harrison she remembered despite the physical resemblance. This man was not Eobard Thawne, he was not the one she'd been in love with, but she didn't want him to be. She wouldn't be able to explain why she wanted him at the moment even if she tried. All that mattered was making the pain, the ache, all the troubles and all the stress go away. All that mattered was the sweet oblivion, promised by her climax.

They said mornings after were awkward, but they didn't need to be if you didn't stay the night. Rachel might've had sex with Harrison Wells of Earth 2, but she hadn't stayed. She'd just left the Labs and gone home…

…only to come back in the morning, that was, and to find him arguing with the rest of the team after which he left himself.

"What just happened?" she asked, perplexed.

"He refuses to listen to reason," Caitlin informed, quite ruffled as she folded her arms across her chest. "He needs to stay. We need him. We can only defeat Zoom and find Harry's daughter if we work together, but he doesn't seem to get that."

"Because he's stubborn! And quite frankly, we don't really need him!" Cisco argued. "We're better off without him."

"Actually, I think Caitlin's right," Barry supported the doctor. "We do need him and we should definitely help his daughter. We cannot let innocent people get hurt by Zoom or worse."

"Speaking of… how are you?" Rachel finally braved it out to ask, looking at him with care in her eyes, yet in the same time trying to do her best to keep herself at distance since, somehow it was all too much whenever Barry was concerned. He was currently in a wheelchair – another detail that only made things harder for her.

"Healing, but slowly. Thanks," he responded and nodded. "We really need to get Wells back. Do you think you could talk to him, Rachel?" he then asked her.

"What? Me? Why me?!" She reacted way too strongly, the memories of their bodies moving together in an urgent rhythm the night before still fresh in her mind; his voice and his hands… She nearly blushed and was so grateful no one but the two of them knew what happened.

"You were the one who convinced him to come here and trust us in the first place," Barry reminded her when frowning slightly.

"Um… yeah… yes. I guess that is true…"

"If this is about last night, it didn't mean anything," he said gruffly when she barely approached him. In normal circumstances something like this would hurt her, but in this case, she really couldn't care less.

"Don't worry. I don't expect anything nor do I want it. It didn't exactly mean anything to me either," she assured him in exasperation, nearly rolling her eyes.

"Then why are you here?" He sighed impatiently, ruffled that he was interrupted.

"We need you. Whether you or we like it or not, we need one another. We can't defeat Zoom alone. Together we are stronger. With your mind and Barry's powers…"

"The same Barry who almost died last night? Whom I almost got killed?!"

"You? And why is that? Because you helped us tease Zoom with Doctor Light as a bait and it didn't work out? Or because you kept pushing Barry to try and defeat him as soon as possible? Then again, you forget that it was me being kidnapped and me seeing Zoom's real identity that did the trick. I could as well say it's my fault."

"That's just ridiculous…" Harry shot her a look and then came to a stop, seeing her point along with her expression. "I need to get home, ok? To find a way to figure out which of those breaches will take me home and I'll try fighting Zoom from there."

"With what?" she asked the perfect question he hadn't, yet, found the answer to. "Unless… Harry, what if we close the breaches? Make it harder for Zoom to travel between worlds?"

"I'm listening…"

One doctor kidnapped and saved and one telepathic gorilla caught and sent to Earth 2 later, the team gathered in the cortex, Barry back at his full speed and on his legs, ready to come up with a plan to both stop Zoom and get Harry's daughter back.

It was Rachel's idea to put Harry in the Reverse Flash's suit and try to dupe Grodd. One that she'd quickly regretted since seeing him dressed like that had brought up way too many memories and not just for her. Barry had basically run out of his wheelchair and almost attacked him, led by impulse rather than brains.

However, it'd worked. And the team seemed to like Harry more now, be more welcome towards him and more accepting in general.

They finally had a plan. They finally worked together. It was time to act.

Barry was watching both Harry and Rachel with a frown though, seeing that they were more comfortable with each other now than before and not sure how he felt about it. He decided to go and see Patty and once he did, he didn't waste any time, pulling her into a dark corner and kissing her.

"What are you doing?" she gasped, yet with a smile on her face when they broke apart.

"Taking a leap," he simply answered.

Rachel was just on her way out of the building when a hand caught her arm and pulled her into an empty room. Before she realized what was happening, Harry was kissing her again in his usual demanding manner, his hands already roaming all over her body, then grasping her hips to ram them straight into his and making her feel him.

"We shouldn't be doing this. This is a bad idea," she eventually pointed out, yet her hands were already working on his belt and grasping his hardness whereas he was getting rid of her bra.

"Who cares?" he only asked before hissing, feeling her warm touch over him. "Turn around," he then requested and she did as asked, feeling him push her over a chair before he entered her without wasting any time, plain fucking her.

Around the same time, Barry and Patty arrived at her apartment, kissing and losing clothes on their way as well. She was beautiful and they had so much in common, he thought. They could make a great couple, it should work, he kept on convincing himself when exposing her naked flesh to his eyes and hands. Yes, there was this small detail of him lying to her, but he couldn't just tell her he was the Flash… he decided, taking reigns over her body, making all his problems and the world around him disappear for a moment.