Dropping In

[swoopyhair]

Once he'd gotten word from Noah that it would be safe, Peter was eager to visit Central City and see Claire. It was nice to hear she'd finally settled down, and something he expected to happen sooner or later. What he didn't expect, however, was to hear she'd gotten herself into a relationship. At least not so soon after moving in.

But he understood all too well what it was like to fall in love with someone at first sight. He was glad that it seemed to be going much better for his niece than it had for him.

There was also some lingering curiosity about the dream he'd had. The one where he was in that weird room with Claire and a bunch of people he didn't know - her friends, he would later learn after talking with Noah. He assumed he'd meet them eventually, though maybe not today. It would make sense if she wanted to introduce him slowly and let them build up trust in him. She'd never been so open with her relationships that he could remember - the last one he knew anything about had been with Gretchen and even then he barely had met the woman. Peter didn't want to push too hard and end up distancing himself from Claire all over again. He was all too aware that his involvement with Sylar had put a strain on them, and he wanted to use this time to try and set things right.

Claire had texted her address just after moving in, so he knew right where to go. But rather than teleport directly into the apartment, Peter popped into the hallway. He was planning to surprise her, and now that he was there, he hoped she was home so he didn't have to text her and ruin the surprise.

He knocked twice, then waited for her to answer.

Comments

[swoopyhair]

Barry hadn't mentioned Flash Time, so he was grateful for the explanation. He wasn't sure he'd need to use it, considering he already could stop time. As Jesse started moving, he looked up curiously, his smile slowly growing wider. Her enthusiasm was infectious.

Claire was startled briefly, but made a quick recovery as soon as she realized what was going on. "Ooh, are we doing a wombo-combo with Flash Time, or are you just that fast?" she asked with amusement, looking around at the trails of yellow lightning. Jesse had been next to her, not in contact with Peter, so he couldn't have brought her in along with Caitlin.

"You might be able to move fast enough that you wouldn't need Flash Time," Peter said. "FI mean, if you were already running when I stopped time, you might just keep going."

"That could very well be the case with Thawne or the God of Speed. Barry said they're both faster than him," Claire pointed out, somewhat concerned. "Stopping time isn't going to be enough to stop either of them."

[iamnotuptight]

"Little bit of both. I'm fast enough, but I think I'd totally need Flash Time to bring someone else in." She nodded, agreeing with Peter, still super excited. "Flash Time is just pure speed, but I'm vibrating instead of running, so I'm pretty sure I'd run fast enough." Jesse was beaming and practically bouncing with Claire beside her.

"We can do another test with me running on the track and see how it affects me. Assuming you can do that more than once." The last bit was a playful challenge. "I had a big breakfast! I can go all day."

Caitlin laughed at Jesse's energy and could just see a lot of Harry's antagonistic nature in her. That same teasing he only every used on Cisco because the two were like children.

[swoopyhair]

"I can keep this up and see how you run, or I can end it and start up again," Peter said, then laughed a little. "You're not gonna wear me out, don't worry."

"Whatever we test is gonna be helpful. The more info we have about how powers interact, the better." Claire was more subdued than Jesse at the moment, but still just as cheerful. She couldn't help but miss Barry a little. He'd love this. Hopefully Peter wouldn't mind repeating some tests. "There might still be some brownies left if you need a pick-me-up after," she added, teasing.

[iamnotuptight]

Jesse somehow smiled brighter and bounced from foot to foot with excitement. "Oh! Um, if I let go of Claire, she's gonna freeze again." She looked at Claire again with an apology. "But this is really fun and interesting! I love seeing how our powers interact! I don't get do do this kind of testing much. I mean, we did some training with Cisco's powers but that was a lot more of just testing my reaction times and dodging breaches."

Cait looked uneasily off to the side. "Barry did some riskier testing with Cisco's vibe blasts, but that was against my wishes and not something either of them would probably repeat against anyone else. Barry was hit with Reverb's vibe blasts, he was Cisco's Earth-2 doppelgänger and Barry wanted to see if there was a way to get out of that attack if he were to get hit again by another variant like Reverb or evil Breacher." The tone of her voice suggested, he didn't find the result he was looking for in his tests.

"Hey, Peter, if I bring Claire to you, will she be able to stay in sync with us?" Jesse asked, trying not to let the thought of Barry being hit with a vibe blast bring her mood down too much. She'd seen Cisco's vibe blasts and she'd seen Reverb's vibe blasts. She knew they could be pretty catastrophic. "I'm definitely gonna hit the brownies again when we're done!" She smiled at Claire.

[swoopyhair]

"Oh, yeah. I can get her." Peter blushed a little, leading Caitlin to take Claire's hand. "Gets more tricky the more people, but two is manageable."

Claire didn't love the thought of Barry getting hit with a vibe blast, but clearly he was okay now, so she didn't let herself worry about it too much. She figured she couldn't get that upset about him testing with Cisco, because frankly, it was the same kind of test she would want to do herself. If Barry was fine after, she could tank a vibe blast, no problem. She'd taken Hartley's sonic blast, after all, and now she'd shake both off easier since she wasn't nerfed by the Chameleon venom.

She could take an icicle through the leg too. The mention of Reverb reminded her reminded of Cisco's Vibe about Killer Frost. But she pushed that out of her head before Peter could accidentally pick up on it, and made a mental note to talk to Cisco about it later. Maybe there was a connection to the God of Speed Vibe, and Peter's dreams.

"At the Carnival, Hiro needed Ando's supercharger lightning to power him up enough to teleport, like... twenty people, maybe? That's how we moved the other Evos away from Samuel to make his power weaker," Claire explained.

"I'd borrowed Samuel's power to try and stop him, but at the time I could only hold on to one power." Peter didn't really miss that aspect of his ability, nor did he miss having the ability to move dirt. Maybe if Claire got it into her head to buy a farm someday, that sounded like something she'd do.

"Ready when you are, Jesse," he added with a grin. He'd seen Barry run, but he was just as eager to see another demonstration, especially in an environment made for just that, like the Speed Lab. The experience would help when he reabsorbed the speed and could actually train with it.

[iamnotuptight]

Jesse nodded and walked Claire over to Peter. "Good thing I'm not asking you to do twenty people. I'm not sure how we'd replicate that kind of ability." She admitted. "Cisco and my Dad have been able to use tech to recreate some abilities and things like Velocity are able to give temporary speed, but I have no idea if that's something that can be done with Evo abilities for you. Dad built special glasses to tap into the fear receptors in Cisco's brain to help with his vibes and Cisco designed gauntlets that help him focus the vibrational energy easier in his vibe blasts to make it more potent. Things like that. Dad also built a tachyon enhancer to help Barry absorb tachyons and run faster. Though, that one was going off Thawne's research. Thawne just never managed to build his own." Jesse sounded proud of her dad, able to succeed where Thawne hadn't.

"I'm sure if you can stomach his mood swings, Harry would be willing to look into testing possibilities for you." Caitlin agreed with a warm smile and gave his hand a squeeze almost subconsciously.

Once Jesse had Claire handed off safely, she grinned at Peter and counter down, "3, 2, 1--" Then took off, zipping around the circular track around them like a streak of yellow lightning. She tried not to move fast enough to catch her STAR Labs shirt and sweats on fire, but she wasn't slow by any means. After about fifteen laps around the track she zipped back and paused. "Hold that thought." She zipped out of the room. When she came back, she was clad in her red, black, and gold suit. Now she could run. And run she did. Jess took off at even higher speeds. Enough that between time trying to stop her and the Speed Force trying to accelerate, she was creating a tidal wave of friction around the track. It built up until it reached critical and surged outward like an EMP.

The surge knocked her on her ass, along with everyone else in the room and plunged the building into darkness, but wouldn't leave any lasting damage besides a few bruised tailbones, maybe some broken mugs, and frizzy hair. No one has any pacemakers, right?

[swoopyhair]

It might be worth it to pay Ando a visit for that ability, to test and see if and how it worked with Metas, Peter thought. If Ando had gone back to Japan, maybe he could convince Claire to come along. He was sure she'd like to see Tokyo.

Uncle and niece watched with unabashed delight as Jesse ran the track. It was nothing new to Claire by now, but it never failed to amaze her, and Peter was still getting used to that kind of speed.

Sorry, Thawne, it wasn't going to be so easy to impress her anymore.

The EMP blast knocked Peter right down, breaking his hold on both Caitlin and Claire, as well as breaking his concentration on stopping time. She went flying with a startled squeal, carefully shifting into a sitting position.

"Everyone okay?" Peter called out. He nearly brought up a ball of lightning to illuminate the dark room on instinct, but stopped short, remembering the earlier discussion. "I can light us up, unless my light source would upset anyone."

"I heard glass or something break," Claire warned. She guessed it was probably the coffee mugs, or maybe some equipment. "What hit us?"

[iamnotuptight]

Caitlin groaned and sat up, dusting off her pants. She heard Cisco hiss then gasp lightly before hearing shuffling in the complete darkness. A phone light lit up an area in her peripheral. It reflected off of pools of dark liquid on the ground that made her heart stop briefly until she realised they were spilled coffee.

"I'm good." Cait answered carefully.

Jesse's yellow lightning was blinding in the dark as she raced to Harry's side. "I think too much electricity built up in my wake. With time frozen, it just kept building and building where I ran then detonated." Jess answered. "Too much stored energy in one place."

"So, the test went well?" Cisco asked, but there was a slight edge to his voice, like maybe he was in pain.

"The light will be fine, Petrelli. You've given us proper warning." Harry answered. "You kids okay?"

[swoopyhair]

The room was then lit up with a soft, blue glow as an orb of lightning hovered above Peter's hand. He looked to Caitlin first, relieved that she was fine. The dark liquid on the floor gave him a similar panic until he too remembered the coffee.

Claire's association with blue lightning was the same as Peter's - Elle Bishop. They were bittersweet memories. She'd been hit with full blasts of it more than once, but she'd also found an odd kinship with the other blonde. Despite all the issues the two had, they were essentially two sides of the same coin.

"We know for sure now that stopping time can't stop a speedster," Peter said, then frowned. "Though with some unexpected side effects. Maybe... now that we know about it, we can find a way to use it to our advantage."

"Cisco? You don't sound so Gucci..." Claire recognized that edge in his voice and was immediately concerned. She already was so used to ignoring her phone whenever she was around Harry and/or Jesse, that she sometimes forgot it existed, or else she might have thought to use its flashlight. Peter's light was enough for her to make her way over to Cisco and Harry.

Peter trailed behind, his paramedic instincts on alert now.

[iamnotuptight]

"I just landed in broken mug." Cisco answered, holding his hand up in the soft blue light. A few speckled cuts were peppered along the heel of his rught palm. "No Breaching for me for a couple days." He lamented. "But I collided with Harry, who I know won't tell you shit, so look him over first."

Harry shot Cisco a grumpy glare and Jesse immediately started fussing. She found a long cut on the Radius side of his forearm, also from ceramic shards. She began rapidly apologising and Harry grabbed her face in both hands, pulled her close until he bumped their foreheads together, "My Jesse Quick, it's not your fault. I'm okay. Cisco's okay." He used Cisco's first name to drive the point home. And she nodded. He let her go and stood up, giving Cisco a hand up.

"We're alright." Harry assured.

Cisco made an undecided whine sound through his nose. "I dunno. You might need stitches. I just need a bandaid." He joked.

Cait moved to Peter's side, not just to get a good look at Harry and Cisco. "You sure you're okay?" She asked Peter.

"I can tell you, it felt like I was running through something thicker than air. It was creating drag. Friction. But I shoulda known that would happen. Between the friction and the build up, that's how we throw lightning. We run so fast we loop the current on itself and build it up enough to direct it. It just didn't give it an outlet and it made its own. I didn't realise I was running fast enough to build it up like that." Jesse sounded desperately apologetic.

[swoopyhair]

Peter looked on with concern at Cisco and Harry, still holding the lightning up. "Yeah, I'm fine," he answered Caitlin, smiling at her in the cool blue light. "Probably won't be the last time I get knocked on my ass."

Claire seemed satisfied that neither of the two had any serious injuries. Harry's cut did seem worse, but it also clearly wasn't life threatening. Nothing Caitlin or even Peter wouldn't be able to patch up easily. She turned her focus to Jesse, a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up about it. We're all gonna be okay, and we learned something that we might be able to use against the growing number of threats against us! I'm calling this a win." She paused, looking around. "Uh... how do we get the power back on?"

[iamnotuptight]

Cait snatched Harry's arm when he seemed distracted so he couldn't fight her off so readily and turned it over. She looked the cut over and chewed on her lower lip. "It shouldn't need stitches, but only if you take it easy and let it actually heal after I dress it." Harry gave her a defiant look then she sighed. "Should I just stitch it, anticipating you reopening the wound?"

"No." He grumbled.

"Meet my most regular patient, second only to Barry Allen." Cait said to Peter with a soft smile. "Or maybe tied to, since Barry has a healing factor and only needs me for his most deadly injuries." She turned her brown gaze to Claire. "If you give Harry a run for his money on that front, I swear, I'll have Cisco engineer a bubble to seal you into for your own safety!" Since you ended up on her table already, Claire.

Jesse nodded and tried to smile at Jesse. She was still upset. She hurt, of all people, her dad. And she knew he'd never blame her. Which somehow made it worse.

"Oh, that's me." Cisco said, flexing his fingers. "Hey, Jesse, mind running me to the gen room so I can hit the breakers?" Jesse nodded, then her and Cisco were gone. After about five minutes, the building started to gradually him back to life in sections. Emergency lights came on, then regular lighting, slowly computers seemed to start booting up again. Jesse wooshed back into the room with Cisco.

"Okay, that's some impressive power build up. Jesse knocked out the entire building. Fortunately, the Pipeline is on its own shielded power source, so no one escaped." Cisco said.

[swoopyhair]

Claire knew it would be essentially the same situation if it had been her and Noah, so she understood that it was hard to let go of the guilt. She still felt bad about some of the things her dad had gone through to protect her.

"Now that I'm clear of the Chameleon venom, I should be healed up before I even make it to the table," Claire said, grinning at Caitlin as the lights were coming back on. "I would've shaken off Hartley's sonic blast in a minute or two, rather than an hour."

Peter looked to his niece with wide eyes. "What the hell did it take you an hour to heal from?" It sounded a little harsher than his usual tone, but clearly out of concern.

"A blast of 200 decibels. Apparently that sort of thing wreaks havoc on your organs. Dropped me like a sack of potatoes. Better me than this guy." She was almost nonchalant as she explained, flashing a quick smile at Harry. "Hartley worked with Thawne, who was posing as Wells, and... mistaken identity. But I did almost take his ass down before he blasted me."

Somehow, none of that surprised him, not the fact that she'd taken the hit to protect a friend, and not that she'd apparently gone down swinging. That was the Claire he knew - he couldn't help but be proud.

Peter again looked concerned when Cisco mentioned something called the Pipeline and people escaping. "Uh, what's that? Do you have... prisoners?"

"I don't remember seeing anyone else down there when I went after Caitlin before. Then again, we were preoccupied so I totally could have missed it," said Claire thoughtfully.

[iamnotuptight]

As soon as Peter showed his own alarm for Claire's health, Harry looked vindicated. "She listens as well as my own teenage daughter." He sighed. "...but if she hadn't been there, Rathaway would've probably killed me without hearing me out." He admitted.

Cisco looked uneasy. "Prisoners make is sound like... we're some kinda medieval dungeon. We hold Meta criminals in power dampening cells for the police because they aren't equipped to hold them just yet. And the last time there were Metas being held somewhere that wasn't here, some no-good assholes got their hands on them. General Eiling wants to turn Metas into super soldiers to fight wars. He nearly got Barry and Firestorm. So we're careful about who can access Meta-human criminals. ARGUS is trying to set up a safe, secure place for special case Metas like King Shark while Iron Heights is building Meta containment cells. They've got a couple, but not enough."

Jesse looked over to Peter. "For example, Mirror Master is down there. He can use any reflective surface like a wormhole and travel through it. So he has to be held in a completely matte cell. And Peek-a-Boo can teleport anywhere in visual range, so she has to be held behind one-way glass."

"They were down there. But because of the nature of their powers, they're kept hidden. Cisco Breaches them their meals. The Pipeline is the old particle accelerator. The cells are the old copper tubing retrofitted by Cisco and Dr. Wells--"

"--Thawne." Harry interrupted Caitlin.

"Yes, sorry, Thawne, with Meta power dampening tech. They don't stay down there forever." Cait clarified. "Just until they can be moved."

[swoopyhair]

Peter, having the same regeneration ability as Claire, knew all too well that it shouldn't take an hour to heal from, well, anything. Unless there was something in the kill spot - she'd saved him from that once. He trusted her ability more than most others, because of his own experience, but her recklessness and self-sacrifice still worried him.

Of course, he had the very same penchant for self-sacrifice, even without regeneration. It was how he'd met Claire in the first place, after all. So he had to look a little proud of her for saving Harry's life, knowing he would have done exactly the same.

The explanation about the Pipeline and those contained within made sense, once it was all laid out. He had to admit that he admired the idea. It was something that might have helped the Old Company not be so... terrible. Maybe it's something the New Company can look into developing. Surely someone like Mohinder Suresh could help. He knew Noah Bennet had to be kicking himself that something like this didn't exist ten years ago.

"Heh, Peek-a-Boo." Claire giggled. "That's cute." And there was a certain kind of irony around keeping Thawne in a cell he helped to build. "I don't like this General guy. He sounds too much like those government goons who wanted to use the Formula to make Evo soldiers. And Danko, who wanted to lock us all up."

"No thanks to my brother," Peter said bitterly. "Nathan was the one whispering those ideas in the President's ear. Tracy's managing to undo all that with this new administration."

"Probably a good thing it's not a medieval dungeon," Claire piped up cheekily. She didn't want to think about her biological father. "Then you'd have me asking for flails and whips."

[iamnotuptight]

Harry was a bit of a hypocrite on that front. He'd made it clear he didn't have a problem trading his life for any of theirs, but he didn't want the same treatment. It had panicked him that Hartley had dropped her protecting him.

Cisco certainly did brag to Thawne's face about locking him in a cell he helped create. Probably not his most sportsman like moment, but it felt like the only win they'd had over Thawne and he had wanted to savour it.

Caitlin smiled brightly as Claire approved the nickname and Cisco rolled his eyes, huffing. "Fine! Yes, you named one." Which only added insult to injury because he didn't name Mirror Master, either, Harry had, and both had adopted the nicknames. Then Cisco's expression turned grim. "Eiling was bad news bears. He keeps giving us shit, too. But he's kinda backed off since Gorilla Grodd, a Meta-gorilla mind controlled him into doing some shit. Eiling worked with Thawne briefly before Thawne kicked him to the curb."

Cait took over. "We were working with a highly intelligent gorilla project. Thawne didn't like the way Eiling treated Grodd, so he broke off the partnership. Thawne and I bonded with Grodd." She looked sad. "But he escaped and vanished after the particle accelerator exploded. ...anyway, Eiling wanted to weaponise gorillas like Grodd into soldiers. That wasn't what we were doing here at STAR Labs. Grodd got his revenge on Eiling by subjugating him to mind control for months."

"But don't worry. He's in a gorilla sanctuary on my Earth now that was built for highly intelligent gorillas like Grodd so they can be with others of their kind, away from human interference." Harry explained. He didn't like the explanation about Nathan though. Peter's brother. And he was sure he'd heard the name at least once before. "This is your biological father? Why would he do that?"

In an attempt to lighten the mood, Cisco jumped on the whips and flails comment. "Girl, we don't kink shame here, but what you and Barry get up to in the bedroom stays in the bedroom." He teased. Revenge for making him blush so much with the Becca comments.

[swoopyhair]

A... gorilla. Just when Peter thought he'd heard it all. The things he missed, keeping himself too busy to read the news. He was still not going to ask about aliens. The superpower stuff he could handle, easily, but multiple Earths and intelligent gorillas were wild enough for one day.

"Yeah, that's my bio-dad," said Claire, shooting her uncle a uncertain glance. Why was Nathan the way that he was? "Probably a mix of self-loathing and ambition, I'd guess. I don't think he wanted to be an evolved human."

He had to admit, s uh E wasn't wrong. "Sounds about right. Plus he let himself be influenced by the absolute worst people. Which was always frustrating for me, because I looked up to him. But swear he wasn't completely terrible. He did the right thing when it truly mattered."

She shrugged. "I wouldn't say he was irredeemable, no." Just like she'd told Thawne - it took a lot for someone to get to that point.

Cisco's levity was much appreciated, even if he made her blush up a storm. 'Cisco! I--" There were a few seconds of stammering before she recovered quickly and smoothly. "I was talking about the battlefield, but if that's where your mind goes, well. You'll get along with Becca just fine." Nice try, Bestie, but her revenge on your revenge was immediate.

Peter, on the other hand, was pretending not to hear any of it. He didn't need to know anything about Claire's bedroom, thank you very much.

[iamnotuptight]

Probably for the best, because not only was there the whole Kara and Clark thing from another Earth being aliens, but the whole Dominators thing nearly wiping out to Earth recently which was also a problematic one. Though it also involved time travel AND aliens. Sorry, Peter.

"Yeah, well, tough break. 'Cause Cait and I don't wanna be Metas, either. We don't always get what we want." Cisco said bitterly. He already didn't like her bio dad. Anyone who sounded like Eiling was not a good person in his book. Besides, anyone who upset Claire deserved to get punched in the nose in his opinion.

Harry was a bit more understanding. "Sometimes doing the right thing in the end is all we can hope for."

Cisco was briefly winning then right back to blushing. Dammit Claire!

Peter wasn't the only one pretending not to hear it. Harry and Jesse were tuning the two out too.

[swoopyhair]

Peter didn't time travel anymore unless he absolutely had to, but it was still something he can wrap his mind around - he'd even met a future version of himself from another timeline. He just wasn't ready for life on other planets.

For all of Claire's bitterness toward Nathan, and the things he'd done, she still missed him, occasionally. Or maybe she missed the father she wished he could have been. She'd seen glimpses of that man, entirely too fleeting. Harry's words hit home. Shit, now he was out here reminding her of both dads? Dad Energy off the charts, as she was in the habit of saying now.

"I adore you both exactly as you are," Claire said earnestly. "And I'm not just saying that 'cause Cisco's Vibes are helping to save my life. The negative aspects of what you can do don't define you."

"Claire's right," Peter agreed. "But I understand how difficult it can be. I had my powers taken from me once, then when I got them back I could only borrow one at a time until Sylar helped me evolve my ability. Having one at a time made things simpler, but I could never predict which one I'd need more at any given time. But now I like the way my power changed. It's more focused on the empathic part."

She savored that small victory over Cisco. "Sorry, Bestie. You were ahead for like five seconds."

[iamnotuptight]

Harry had a lot of Dad Energy to give, even if he had a lot of flaws.

Cait shook her head immediately. "We'd never think you were that shallow, Claire." Caitlin argued immediately. "But there are just no positive aspects to my power. It's not even mine. It's Killer Frost's power."

"My power is... it's dirty. It was given to me by Thawne. It'd be a different story if I'd been born with it. I could live with the visions, as horrific as they can be. But you should hear him talk about my power. Gifts he calls them. Bestowed by him, like I should thank him or something. I'm grateful that I can use this curse to save lives, but that's as close as I'll get to accepting them." Cisco looked down at his hands. Unfortunately, Peter's story didn't do as much to convince him that his powers were a good thing as much as it nudged him into the direction of thinking what it might be like if someone could take them from him. He'd probably thank them.

In the quiet lull, Caitlin cleared her throat and tugged Harry's sleeve. "Let's get these two back to my lab so I can clean their cuts and dress them. I don't mind company or an extra pair of hands." She offered Peter a smile.

[swoopyhair]

"I don't mind helping, if needed." Or just hanging around. Peter totally understood why Claire was so happy here. She was surrounded by caring, funny, and bright friends. He also got why Noah was so happy for her. The new friends she'd made on the road were spread out and while they'd occasionally be mentioned here and there, she never really introduced them to her family.

Noah had met a couple of them, but Peter didn't know this, because he'd been too busy working double-shifts. As rewarding as he found his work, though, he was glad he took this break from the hospital.

"I can clean up here and meet you guys back in the Cortex," Claire offered. "But... Cisco? When you say Thawne gave you your power, is that something he really could have done intentionally?" They all knew how Thawne manipulated people. How could he pick and choose who became a Meta? It felt like his mind games - after all, he'd been so adamant about telling her she was special and remarkable. When talking about the future plan, he'd played that up, presumably to his own ends, whatever those might have been. He sounded so hurt in that voice message, but she couldn't truly know if he actually hoped she'd help him, or if he had other plans in mind for his future self. It would have been easy for Thawne to leave himself clues about her so when she popped up he'd know she was significant despite that version of himself not meeting her yet.

[iamnotuptight]

Cait was far too happy that Peter agreed to help. Honestly, even if he just kept her company in the Med Lab, she'd be happy.

"When... when we had Thawne in the Pipeline, I..." Cisco was hesitating heavily, because no one knew he had this conversation with Thawne. He'd deleted the footage so no one could stumble across it because of what Thawne said. Then Harry showed up and outed him almost immediately anyway. "When I told him I remembered a timeline where he shoved his hand into my chest and crushed my heart right after calling me a son, he said he had always suspected I'd get powers. But he wasn't certain until right then. Even he couldn't remember that timeline since Barry accidentally erased it." Cisco was absentmindedly rubbing his chest. "He acted like he was glad I had them. He had the gall to show sympathy that I could remember my own death." Cisco wasn't crying! You're crying! He angrily wiped tears from his eyes. The anguish of betrayal was strong again.

Harrison tugged his sleeve free from Caitlin's hold and slung his uninjured arm around Cisco, pulling the kid's face into his chest in a one-armed hug. Harry didn't do casual hugs for anyone but Jesse, though he made exceptions for goodbyes and whatever the fuck this was, because Cisco was crumbling. He was also probably the last face Cisco wanted to see right now, so the hug hid that while allowing him to provide comfort.

Jesse put a hand on Claire's shoulder. "I'll clean up the coffee and broken mugs. You go with them. Keep Cisco in one piece for me, okay?" She smiled and gave Claire's shoulder a squeeze.

[swoopyhair]

Peter's hand found Caitlin's almost subconsciously, but held on loose enough for her to pull away if she wanted. Yet again he found himself wondering how the hell Claire had gotten herself mixed up with this Thawne guy. He remembered the warnings not to get too close, because yeah, something called the Negative Speed Force probably was bad for someone with an empathy-rooted ability like his. But damn if it wasn't tempting to have a word with him, at least.

Though for all the pain he'd obviously caused, Peter was tempted to do more. He wouldn't, because he trusted the team's judgement. He'd just revel in any opportunity to help take the asshole down.

Claire immediately regretted asking, as soon as she saw the change in Cisco's expression. How stupid of her - obviously it'd be something that would've pained him to talk about. Though in a way she'd expected an answer more about the logistics of things, rather than Thawne's mind games. Still, she should've known better.

"Okay." She nodded at Jesse, feeling too guilty about asking to argue. "I-- I'm sorry, Cisco." Tentatively, she pulled away and stepped closer to Harry and Cisco, her hand resting on the latter's shoulder. "I should've been more thoughtful." Which... she knew she usually was, but her impulsive nature still occasionally lent itself to speaking without thinking.

[iamnotuptight]

Cait gave his hand a squeeze when it found hers. She knew how easy it was to want to give Thawne a piece if your mind for all the trauma he put Barry and Cisco through.

Cisco shook his head and reached up to touch her hand. "It's okay." He said, muffled by Harry's shirt. He pulled back and almost obviously avoided looking up at Harry for the moment. "You didn't know. You just want to help. And you'd think I'd be over my trauma by now." He was blaming himself not her.

"Stop that." Harry said gruffly. He figured Claire would agree. She didn't like seeing Cisco belittle himself any more than Harry did.

"Come on. Med Lab." Caitlin said gently, steering the group to the hall with her free arm.

[swoopyhair]

Peter was the good duck following along with Caitlin, headed back toward the Med Lab. Mostly because he didn't want to let her go so long as she was letting him hold her hand. At least until it was time to get to work, of course.

Claire absolutely agreed, and gave Harry a quick smile as she took over with the Cisco-wrangling, gently guiding him to follow Peter and Caitlin. It was fairly obvious that he didn't want to look at Harry.

"If only trauma worked like that," she said quietly, almost amused. But in a general way, not poking fun at Cisco. "We'd all be a hell of a lot more well-adjusted." There were things from a decade ago that still haunted her. It wasn't something to just get over. "I know asking questions about Thawne and your powers is a friggin' minefield. You're right, I do just want to help - but I'll still be more careful."

At the Med Lab, Peter (reluctantly) let go of Caitlin to let her work and help out wherever needed. She called the shots; wherever she'd need him, there he'd be.