The Wish Factory

Chapter 11

Ryleigh should have known that Dr. Wells would have stayed as soon as he saw that she was there. His curiosity would have gotten the better of him. No one moved as they looked between the two of them and she was at a loss for words. She didn't want to tell him anything because he'd take credit for it and try to manipulate her or worse, put her in the vault. Dr. Wells was evil, and she'd have been afraid even if the implanted memories didn't make her be. She decided to be confident, so she squared her shoulders and placed her hands on her hips. She glanced at Barry who looked like he was utterly lost for words. When she faced Harrison Wells, she glared at him.

"My being here has nothing to do with you; Barry thought that Caitlyn could help me with a case I'm working on." He grinned and nodded as he glanced between Barry, Caitlyn, and her.

"Ryleigh, I'm not going to hurt you, despite what you might think, I just want to help. If you have side effects from our experiments together or the particle accelerator, including me, is in your best interest." She looked to Barry for support, but she could tell by his facial expression that he agreed with him. She opened her mouth to deny what he said, but Barry beat her to it.

"Look Ryleigh; he makes a fair point. I think we need all hands on deck for this one, especially if it'll help you." Ryleigh felt two things at once, and she didn't have time to analyze them just then. She was fascinated by her response because she could see the logic in his statement, but her feelings were something completely different. She'd watched the show, she knew how smart Wells was, so it made sense to have him help, but her implanted memories refused even to consider it as an option. She bowed her head because she didn't want to give anything away when she spoke.

"I didn't come here for his help, Barry, I came here for yours. Look, it's okay, I will figure it out on my own." She glanced up at Barry and saw that he looked hurt by her rebuff, but she couldn't dwell on that. She briskly walked out of the room and headed in the direction they came. She could hear them talking but couldn't make out the words. She made it to the elevators when she heard someone call her name. She turned to see Cisco running up to her with a smile.

"Hey, wait up; I just want to talk to you for a minute." She turned to face him, frowning as she replied.

"They chose you as their spokesperson?" He laughed and shook his head before answering her.

"No one would ever choose me to be their spokesperson. I get that you have some reservations with Dr. Wells. He never talked about it, but he said that he regretted the relationship he had with you. I'm not here for that though; I wanted to take you down to my lab so I can check out your earpiece. Barry mentioned that it was deteriorating, so I thought I could at least look at that and see what I can do." Ryleigh loved Cisco on the show; he was one of her favorites, so she thought about his offer. She sighed heavily as she answered him; he needed to know before they did anything.

"I wouldn't mind you taking a look at it, honestly, but if I take this earpiece out...you won't be able to hide your thoughts. It's powerful; I'll be able to hear everything you think." He grinned and pressed the appropriate button on the elevator.

"That's okay; I think it's kind of awesome. I told the others to stay away because I got the impression that too many would be harmful, otherwise why the device?" She couldn't help but return his smile; it was infectious. She followed him down to his lab, and it took sheer willpower not to squeal. Once he was at his desk, he held out his hand to her. She took a deep breath and took the earpiece out and handed it to him. She was immediately flooded with his thoughts, and it was both refreshing and weird.

**
This is so cool, imagine the information you could get with this ability.
Wait, she can hear me right now, crap. This design is pretty cool,
but it has to be annoying always to wear something in your ear.
Maybe I could design it as an injection? No, that would be too painful.
Perhaps it could pin and sit under her ear, how would that not be an injection though?
It looks intact; maybe the frequency just needs to be amped up if it's dying out.**