You Bring Out The Worst In Me~

[nevergetshome]

It had been some time ago that Thawne had gotten the results of Claire's blood. He messaged her and to his surprise the text kicked back. A phone call told him the number had been disconnected. It only took a little bit of research with Gideon to get her address from this time period only to find out she'd moved. Recently. And where had she moved to? Of all places in the world but Central City. The hometown of his foe. A place he spent fifteen years of his life. It was time to visit his old rival.

Silent observation was key. He kept his distance, but immediately, he felt something interesting. Barry Allen was having trouble handling the Speed Force. The fumbles were small, but enough that he could feel them when Barry faltered. Ahh, so this was around his encounter with the Chameleon. That made sense. What drove a dagger into his heart though was to see Barry Allen and Claire Bennet together. After he'd shared everything with her. Told her how Barry ruined his life. Even if he never said Allen's name, he called him the Flash, and she clearly knew who he was. How could she betray him?!

Just one more reason to hate Barry. One more thing Barry stole from him. One more reason to destroy The Flash. He'd have to teach them both a lesson.

There was a knock at Noah's hotel door. Harrison was standing politely on the other side, waiting for Noah to answer.

Comments

No, it's fine! XD

[feelthelightning]

Harry stepped forward when she recoiled out of Barry's arms and seemed to have more of a breakdown. Allen looked like he didn't know what to do, so Harry knelt down beside her.

"Claire," He deliberately used her first name. "you won't hurt us. I don't believe for a second that that's all you do. None of us do. We all make mistakes. Hell, I betrayed this team after I promised them I wasn't like Thawne. I knew what the man with my face had done, I fought for their trust, and I threw it back in their faces like an insult. I nearly got Allen killed because of it." He reached out to tip her chin up with two fingers so he could look her in the eyes.

"I'm the reason this kid knows what it feels like to have his back broken. Thawne may be the reason he'll forever have a knee-jerk reaction to my face, but I'm the reason he'll never know if he can trust another Harrison Wells again. If there's anyone here who doesn't deserve the kindness shown to them by this team, it's me. Not you."

Barry scooted closer and reached for her hand. "I trust you, Claire. You won't hurt me. You won't disappoint or betray me. I love you. Nothing will change that." He tried to scoot himself so he was leaning against her with an arm around her shoulders again. "Harry may be too hard on himself, but he's right about you."

[infinite1ups]

Despite feeling like a ruin already, Harry's use of her first name made her crumble a little more. Making her look at him the same way Thawne had, that damn near shattered her.

Claire sniffled and held back sobs, trembling as she listened to all Harry had to say. He'd been protecting her from the beginning, he was still protecting her now.

"I was stupid and naive," she said stubbornly, her voice thick and garbled from crying. "I thought I could fix him. Save him. He thought so too. He believed in me..."

None of that would make sense without the added context of the future plan. Her promise. Better to fess up at the earliest convenient opportunity rather than risk letting Thawne take any enjoyment in making her look more like a fool. She could embarrass herself just fine, without anyone's help.

"I saw him with his original face, still before I came here. He said I could change his future, in the 22nd century. That I... I made him care. On the drive, he said changed everything with Eddie, because he believed in me. A voice memo - it was programmed to be deleted after I heard it."

Claire's gaze shifted to each of her friends, and lastly on Barry. She felt broken, and she probably looked it, too. "It really is my fault he's back. You shouldn't trust me, or love me, I'll just ruin everything. I'm sorry."

Self-sacrifice sometimes turned into self-sabotage and self-destruction.

[feelthelightning]

What she clearly didn't know was that Thawne didn't take any enjoyment in this. He'd truly been hurt and seeing her reaction told him that she had at least been sincere in her promises, for a while. This drove his hatred of Barry even higher. If not for him, none of this would have happened!

Barry shook his head. "It's not your fault." He paused then stood up. "Gideon, bring up Pipeline security footage from 2015." A list of video files appeared on the holographic display. Barry picked out one specific file. "Claire, you need to see this. It shows you the kind of man he is. How he can use words and emotions as weapons." It also showed Barry in a state of rage he wasn't proud of, but she needed to see this anyway. He held a hand out to her to help her up then played the video footage.

"This pain, this hurt that you're feeling right now? Like you're at fault for something? It's exactly what he wants. You're not at fault. You're a good person, Claire. You're full of light and love and caring and empathy. All things that man will never and can never have. Don't let him hurt you like this." Barry had tears in his eyes now.

[infinite1ups]

She was unsteady on her feet, but with Barry's help she got up. It hurt to watch the footage, to see Thawne being so manipulative when he had seemed so genuine with her, and most of all it hurt to see Barry in so much distress. Her arm slipped around his waist, and she leaned in closer.

"I promised I'd help him. That things could be better," Claire said miserably. It had felt so real, Thawne's belief in her, the pain in his voice in that recording. Maybe he really had cared for her, maybe she had been his chance to actually have those things, and then she ripped it away.

It didn't occur to her that Eobard might not enjoy seeing her so devastated. She thought he must hate her now, almost as much as he hated Barry.

"It's not just Thawne. It's a long, long list of people I've screwed over, for years. He's just the latest one." Claire paused, allowing herself a breath before she fell apart again. "I'd sweep in, make a bunch of promises, get scared I'm getting too close, then I'd be gone. Only a matter of time before I got in my head to do it here, too."

It wasn't true, not really. Central City, Barry, and her friends were truly home now. She was making plans, planting roots. This whole mess had reminded her of the patterns of her past, making her doubt herself. That couldn't have been part of Thawne's plan, he wouldn't have known her well enough to prey on those specific insecurities, but it was another win for him all the same.

"I have to face him. But not for him. For me. No more cutting and running when things get hard, like I've done ever since the Ferris wheel." Claire was still very shaky and upset, but her resolve was growing stronger. "I need to own up to this. To apologize. And... it's an opportunity to stop him before he can hurt anyone else."

Which would be another betrayal, in his eyes. She was going to own up and apologize for that, as well, if it came to that.

[feelthelightning]

"You wouldn't leave me." Barry said softly and cupped her cheek. "We're going to be disgustingly sweet together forever. And adopt a dog together. And drive our collective dads nuts with worry all the time." Barry kissed her forehead. "I... don't want you near Thawne, but if you think it's something you need for closure, we'll work on making it as safe as possible." He saw Harry nod beside him.

"When you said he changed everything with Eddie, what did you mean?" Cisco asked from the doorway. He didn't know how to be much help for her emotionally. At least not better than Barry and Harry could be, so he'd stayed back. "Because I've been having weird nightmares about Eddie for a while now. They're always the same. It feels a lot like when I relive my death from the erased timeline."

[infinite1ups]

"I just asked you to move in with me. I want to stay with you." Barry was right. She wouldn't have built all this just to leave. That hadn't been her M.O. all the other times. She'd be long gone before anyone could become so fully immersed in her life, but instead here they were, building a life together. The apartment, their blended found family, a dog.

A real home, like she'd been longing for ever since the house in Odessa went up in radioactive flames. And beyond that... kids, maybe. That had been a glimmer of hope in the back of her mind ever since Harry mentioned it the morning Hartley attacked them.

Claire hadn't realized just how much she wanted any of that until she actually had it. How utterly stupid to come so close to throwing it away. And for what, her pride? For Eobard Thawne?

Cisco's voice cut through her thoughts, and she stopped herself short of insisting that she needed this confrontation with Thawne. They were still planning how best to deal with him, so that could wait. "He said he pulled Eddie from the timeline. Because he believed in me so strongly, he chose to save Eddie instead of killing Barry. That way, I'd be able to find him in the 22nd century and alter the future then."

She paused, head tilted in slight confusion as more of the voice memo came back to her. "But he said he changed things more than expected, because I'm with Barry now." And that unnerved her more than she could say, so she didn't dwell on it. "I'm sorry it's giving you nightmares." Yet another thing she could feel was her fault.

"This must mean Eddie is out there somewhere, right? He's not dead."

[feelthelightning]

"Good. As long as we're on the same page." Barry said lovingly and offered her a soft smile. But he looked increasingly concerned as she explained about Eddie.

"Huh. Sounds like someone else I know." Cisco said pointedly at Barry who had the decency to look cowed. "Can't people just leave the timeline alone?" But the little burst of bitterness changed to shock quickly. "Of course he's somewhere else... what do you mean dead?"

This got both Harry and Barry's attention. "Cisco... don't you remember? Eddie killed himself to stop Eobard Thawne from being born to save my life." Barry said slowly and Cisco grew pale. Harry distinctly remembered explaining how temporal aberrations worked to them when Thawne showed up again later because he hadn't yet been erased and had been in the NSF when it happened. So he knew Eddie was dead.

"That's exactly what happens in my nightmare. But dude, Eddie was transferred to New York like a year ago. It was this huge thing. The force had a going away party for him and everything." Cisco said, looking between Barry and Claire. "Iris cried a lot because he up and dropped the engagement."

[infinite1ups]

At the mention of Iris, it was Claire's turn to get a little pale. She quickly tried to compose herself, but nothing she did would ever be quick enough to hide from a speedster, that was one of the first lessons Eobard Thawne had taught her.

"You're talking about the changes Thawne made like you lived through them. Is this a Vibe thing?" she asked, looking to Cisco. This timeline stuff had confused her ever since she went back and changed things that one time, and it was a lot more complicated now. With some reluctance, her eyes went back to Barry. "But you seem to remember things as they were before, like Thawne never changed anything. Could he have been lying? What if--" Her voice broke, and her brows furrowed in annoyance. Annoyance at herself. "What if I'm not supposed to be with you?"

She was on the verge of tears again, and it sent a quiet anger simmering through her. The future wasn't written in stone - that was how Claire Bennet lived her life, making her own future. She had chosen to be with Barry Allen, and she'd choose him in any timeline, to hell with what anyone else had to do or say about it.

[feelthelightning]

"Not a Vibe thing. When a change is made to the timeline, anyone not in the Speed Force when the change is made--" Cisco started but Harry cut in briefly,

"--or someone on another Earth, because each Earth has its own timeline." Cisco shot Harry a look and he gestured for Cisco to continue.

"Anyway, everyone else experiences the changes like they've always been part of their memories. But I'm betting Quicksilver here was in the Speed Force and the Grinch was on Earth-2, so they remember things how they were before. I get to have fun traumatic nightmares about the old timeline because of the Vibe thing. It's so fun!" the last two words were said angrily through gritted teeth.

Now Harry took over. "There are fixed points that can't be altered without dire consequences, like the murder of Allen's mother. Those events cause ripples forward and backwards in time so severe it could wipe out the human race. Not everything is fixed. So there are different outcomes for everything." He had different stances on altering time. Changing the past, he was firmly against it. Preventing a future, he was for it. But he also knew that sometimes trying to prevent something was the cause of it happening.

Barry held Claire again. "I don't care what Thawne changed. I want to be with you. I meant what I said. I was drawn to you. I am drawn to you. And I love you."

[infinite1ups]

"There's no way to get rid of the nightmares, Cisco? Nothing we can do?" She hated that he had to endure such anguish.

Thawne had explained fixed points to her, she recalled. He'd also mentioned the Negative Speed Force being immune to timeline changes, which would have made it possible for her to alter his future. Speaking of immunity, technically she was immune to headaches, but all this timeline talk might give her one.

Claire hadn't been involved with changing past events outside of the one instance. Unlike Hiro and Peter, who had seemed to make their presence felt all over the past, branching things into who knew how many timelines.

She all but melted into Barry's embrace, leaning her head against his chest. Home. That response was exactly what she'd hoped for, what she desperately needed. She held on tight, finally starting to feel like her usual self again. "I love you. Nothing could keep me from you."

[feelthelightning]

"No. I still have nightmares about Thawne killing me and it's been over a year. Trauma like that sticks with you." Cisco answered with a shudder.

"Ramon's power works by harnessing dimensional energy. For his Vibes, his blasts, and his breaches. He essentially pulls stray energy from the timeline and Multiverse though himself to channel it. This does mean, he seems to have the unfortunate ability to see traumatic events that have been changed. Like his own death, or the death of a friend." Harry elaborated.

"Unless we could go back and ungift me these powers. Or find a way to cure me." Cisco mumbled. Harry smacked him in the back of the head and quietly, gruffly berated him for talking like he was diseased.

Barry held onto Claire tightly. "I will always chase after you." He promised.

[infinite1ups]

"I know the feeling," she told Cisco sympathetically. Even without the ability to harness energy of any kind, nightmares, still found her. "Hey, your power working this way doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you." Her chiding was far, far gentler than Harry's.

Claire smiled up at Barry. "Don't give me any ideas for extreme hide and seek," she teased. It was nice to joke again.

"Oh, shit." She looked up suddenly, then pulled out of the hug, catching Barry's hand. "My dad was on his way here. I completely forgot. I need to check on him." Sure, they didn't think Thawne would go after him now, but she had to make sure.

[feelthelightning]

"It's not how they work that bothers me. It's how I got them." Cisco admitted. It was a subject he wasn't going to go into right now. Not with everything going on. Not with Harry standing there looking at him like he might pop him upside the head again for putting himself down. The two had a dynamic that was different from the rest of the team. Harry treated them all with a bit of a fatherly touch. But with Cisco, there was more of an antagonistic bond of kinship. Like siblings.

Barry kissed her temple with a soft laugh. "Let's stick to just cuddling." He wasn't sure he wanted any extreme sports. He did enough crazy shit in his daily life.

She pulled out of the hug and he looked alarmed for a moment. Harry jogged a distance from them to give her cell signal back, just in case. But Thawne hadn't gone after Noah. So it was very likely, he was in the Cortex with Caitlin and Jesse.

[infinite1ups]

"How you got them doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you, either." Because yes, she had been waiting to say that ever since her first day at the lab. But after that she let it drop, and let her words sink in.

There was something sort of amusing in the way her phone started buzzing wildly with notifications as soon as her signal came back. Claire huffed a tiny laugh as she pulled her phone out, one that turned into a genuine giggle as she saw her dad's text pop up. "He's here," she said sheepishly, firing off a quick message to let him know they were okay.

"I dunno about y'all, but I don't think I really wanna see this weird little room again for a while unless I absolutely have to. But the data here--" Her free hand motioned toward the screen. "Can this be transferred elsewhere? Maybe there's something useful for us in it. I see stuff with Thawne's name, too. It looks like he ran my samples against his own." There would be some kind of irony if Thawne had handed over info they could use to stop him.

At the very least, she hoped it would give an idea of whether someone like Peter would be safe around her friends. Anything else that was useful would just be a bonus. She'd be sure to thank him for it.

[feelthelightning]

Cisco grumbled a half objection that quickly withered away under Harrison's glare. Harry was quite certain the three of them were going to have to have conversations later. Clearly, Claire caught onto Cisco's issues too and the kid tended to blow him off just as much as he blew off Cisco when the kid tried to remind him that people cared about him.

Messages he probably wouldn't get because he was with Jesse. The other deadzone.

"Amen, sister! I hate this room!" Cisco said with a deliberate and overly dramatic shudder. "It was even worse when it still had the Reverse-Flash suit in it!"

"I can get the data transferred off the drive." Harry said simply and stepped back into the room.

"Thanks." Barry offered him a smile. He was sure Cisco could figure out a way to get the data from the lectern to a laptop, but Harry probably already knew how. Harry had his own Time Vault on Earth-2, but it didn't house Gideon or a temporal engine. It was literally a high tech panic room from Metas. Namely, Zoom. "Let's head to the Cortex." Barry said and used his own sleeve to blot away the tear streaks on her face.

[infinite1ups]

She frowned, worried she'd said too much, but it seems that Harry agreed. And, she had to admit, maybe her dad was on to something with his ideas for her in the New Company. Her instinct was to offer that kind of encouragement, to evolved humans and Metas alike, it seemed.

Claire had spent long enough thinking she was broken, a freak. She just didn't want others to suffer similarly. Especially not her friends.

"D'aww, thanks baby." Now her cheeks were pink from blushing, not crying, and her smiles were finally back to their usual brightness as Barry wiped her tears away. There was no way she could leave this man. She took his hand to head out of the Time Vault.

"Thanks, Harry." She gave his arm a squeeze with her free hand as they passed by. Out in the hall, heading toward the Cortex, she looked to Cisco. "Hey, you good? I'm sorry if I overstepped."

[feelthelightning]

Harry totally didn't tense under her touch just a fraction, but he offered up a light Harry branded smile. The kind that was really more of just not his typical frown, but quite obviously Harry's 'at ease' expression. It was accompanied with a nod.

Barry was certainly not letting go of her hand any time soon. Or letting her out of his sight for a while.

"No, I'm not good!" Cisco sounded more petulant than angry. None of it was directed at Claire. Just the situation at large. "I'll be good when Eobard fricken Thawne stops showing up in our lives! This is gonna make the vibrating hand nightmares worse for a while! I felt safer with a speedster living in my flat. Think I can get Jesse to take up your room?" The last bit was a joke and Barry snorted out a laugh.

"I think Wells might think you're hitting on her and akin you alive." Barry retorted.

"He can move in too! His paranoia will probably help keep us all alive!" Cisco's arms were flailing as he spoke, a sign of how rattled he was. He didn't mind that Barry moved in with Claire. He just didn't like that Thawne decided to show his face in the city right afterwards.

Caitlin heard them talking as they rounded the corner and moved to intercept. She looked pale and akin to a cornered animal. She quickly hugged Claire and Claire might notice just how cold her ambient temperature was. "Are you both okay? I can't imagine the state of panic you must've been in." Well, she could imagine, but she was worried about Claire right now and trying to ignore her own fear.

[infinite1ups]

Claire could tell it wasn't her, and didn't take it to heart. She was worried, though, and almost felt a little guilty for asking Barry to move in with her. The idea to have Harry and Jesse stay with Cisco wasn't necessarily a bad one, she thought, at least temporarily.

More than anything, it frustrated her that she didn't have much to offer Cisco in the way of comfort. Claire knew how she could be in that state of worry and agitation - all the gentle assurances that it would be okay didn't really help. Sometimes it was best to just have someone to listen while those grievances were aired out.

"Between Harry's paranoia and my dad's, we have an infinite supply." She offered a little levity instead of cliché platitudes. Hell, her own paranoia could be added, too.

There wasn't much time to say more anyway, before Caitlin was meeting them outside of the Cortex. She returned the hug, very careful not to react as she felt how chilled Cait was. Caitlin would feel her tense up a little, but nothing showed on her face.

"As okay as possible, I think, all things considered," Claire sighed, keeping a hand on Cait's arm as they pulled back. "Are you okay? How are you holding up?" It must have shaken her up, having Thawne so close while she was working and not even knowing.

[feelthelightning]

"And Joe's." Barry added helpfully. Joe was paranoid in that old cop way.

"I'll be okay." Caitlin said almost shyly. "I doubt he even came near the med lab. But..." but she couldn't help the fear that choked her up knowing he could have. That he'd been 30 feet away from her for who knew how long. It made her want to cry. She did feel Claire tense up and pulled back, withdrawing in on herself worriedly.

"Jeez! I really need to fix the AC in the med lab for you, Caitlin." Cisco said, to give her an out for being so cold. He could damn near feel it radiating off of her from beside Claire so he was sure Barry could too.

Cisco brushed passed her into the Cortex, but seemed to freeze in place when his shoulder touched Claire's. He looked shocked and out of it for a moment as a Vibe gripped him. He grabbed Claire's shoulder desperately for balance, but tumbled anyway with blood dripping from both nostrils.

"Cisco!" Cait yelled and tried to catch him.

[infinite1ups]

Claire gave Caitlin another reassuring squeeze before Cisco bumped past. She didn't have superspeed, but her reflexes were still quick enough to catch her shoulder under his and try to guide him down gently.

"Cisco?" At first he looked like he had in the Cortex when he'd Vibed the two of them fighting with Killer Frost, except this was obviously worse. She knelt beside him, frowning. "C'mon, Co-Bestie, we got you."

[namesthevillains]

"Sh-shit... anyone get the license plate of that bus?" Cisco muttered when he was finally coherent enough to talk. He rubbed the back of his hand under his nose and saw the blood. He wasn't surprised to see it. He could feel it. Not to mention, he felt like his head just exploded. He held onto Caitlin and Claire as Cait tried to settle him comfortably on the floor.

"Vibe-ception." He muttered. "I Vibed a guy who was Vibing me Vibing him Vibing me..." He looked dazed. "D'juu call me co-bestie?" He smiled lopsidedly at Claire with an almost drunken giggle.

Barry was also at his side with a cloth he'd nabbed from the med lab, wiping the blood clean from Cisco's face.

"The guy was nice looking, strong eyebrows, brunette with brown, eyes. I Vibed him off of you, Claire."

[infinite1ups]

She visibly relaxed as Cisco came back around, and cracked a smile. "Yeah," Claire said sheepishly, then immediately perked up.

Her face was a curious mix of excitement and concern, because truly she didn't know what to make of it. But she knew exactly who Cisco was describing. "Peter!" she chirped, then tilted her head. "My uncle. He doesn't get Vibes like you do, but he can dream the future. Maybe he had a dream about you."

They'd have to look more into those results from Thawne, and probably run more tests of their own to verify. But checking on her friend was a little more important for now. She rested a hand on Cisco's shoulder. "You alright?"

[namesthevillains]

"I like it." He smiled happily and let his head loll a bit. "Co-besties." He seemed a tad out of it still. Slap-happy almost, despite the pain in his brain.

"Well, I think Uncle Peter might've had a rebound dream like my Vibe. That Vibe was like that time the timeline was collapsing." Cisco said and Barry frowned. They almost lost Cisco that day.

"I'm good. Head hurts, but I'm okay." He promised. Caitlin lightly rested her cold hands over his forehead and he hummed his appreciation.

"I'll take a look at you in the Med Lab just to be sure." Cait and Barry helped him to his feet then she walked him off to the Med Lab, trying to keep her hands over his forehead.

Barry took Claire's hand again. "Do you think that means this info from Thawne will say it's safe for Peter to visit?"

[infinite1ups]

Claire got to her feet as they helped Cisco up, then lingered close to Barry outside the Cortex. "I think so? But now I'm worried Peter's Precog abilities might have a negative effect on Cisco. He's got Telepathy from Parkman, too."

She realized that might sound alarming or confusing, and held up her free hand. "Peter has excellent control, he doesn't read people's minds on purpose unless he has permission. But he can definitely pick up on stray thoughts and feelings if they're strong enough, so I'll give everyone a heads up before Peter visits. And Parkman is... one of the good guys, he's a cop in LA."

The Parkman situation was complicated, but ultimately Matt was a good man.

She had been so worried about Meta powers having a negative impact on Peter that the opposite hadn't really occurred to her. Meta powers seemed stronger, which she had taken for granted. She really should have considered it from both sides.

"I don't think we should only be relying on Thawne's research for this," Claire admitted. Her trust in Thawne had been shaken enough to want to exercise some caution in analyzing his test results. "As much as I believe he's been as honest with me as he's capable, it's still best to get Caitlin and Harry get more samples from me. Learn as much as we can, you know?"

Her mind went back to her near-spittake at the table in her kitchen, and she couldn't help but crack a grin. But then she immediately got shy and tried to quickly change the topic. "I should let my dad know I'm okay."

[feelthelightning]

Barry held her close for a moment as he watch them go. "Cisco's abilities are... we're still figuring them out. Harry knows them better than we do because of Cisco's evil doppelgänger from Earth-2, Reverb. He was one of Zoom's lieutenants. Hopefully this is a one-off thing, but it might be something to worry about with Cisco."

Barry wasn't as put off by telepathy as one might think. He tended to be pretty honest and open about everything. Except his secret identity, but that was probably going to come out with her uncle anyway. "A heads up is probably best. I can see Harry having an issue with it. I also feel bad for your uncle if he gets hit with any of Harry's rage fits, mentally."

Though, he did agree. "Thawne's research is usually pretty sound. I've... travelled back in time to get his help before on something I couldn't solve and he came through. ...after some threats on both sides. Funny thing is, he gave us the equations and theories but he couldn't use them himself and Harry was able to actually not only build a working prototype, but rebuild it to be smaller and streamlined. I'm confident with Harry and Cait looking over the data, they'll know what they're looking at and what other tests to run."

Speedster reaction time caught sight of that shy grin but didn't know what to make of it. He nodded and started walking with her into the Cortex where Jesse and Noah were.