You And Me (Hartley Rathaway/Pied Piper - The Flash) Fanfiction

6. If It Wasn't For Hartley

Riley's P.O.V:

I turn my head to Cisco, I'm still mad at him for doing what he did to Hartley. It broke my heart to see him in pain like that, and Cisco only made it worse for him for the sake of his fun. Ugh this makes me so angry.

"Riley..." Cisco whispers softly while walking towards me. I roll my eyes.

"What?!" I snap at him.

"Look I'm sorry, but he's still a criminal. He tried to blow up his parents company. I'm just trying to do my job here. I would never hurt you on purpose." He says.

I say nothing I just look at him. Knowing that somewhere he's right.

"I'm going to the pipeline to see if I can get Hartley to talk about his gauntlets." He says while walking out of the room. 

I decide to join him. Better than to leave those two alone in one room, so I follow Cisco into the pipelines. When we get there I hear music playing. Never gonna give you up by Rick Astley if I'm judging correctly. Hartley hates this song and I know it. Cisco opens the doors towards the pipelines and I can see Hartley with his hands on the glass wall of his cell with a very very annoyed face.

"Please!" He says annoyed.

"I wanna know how these work." Says Cisco waving with the gauntlets.

"I'll tell you just, just kill the music?" He responds almost desperately.

Cisco turns away and kills the music, then immediately Hartley moans in pain and graps his ears. I gasp and take a step foreward but then Cisco opens the doors of his cell and tosses him another set of hearing aids.

"Here, these aren't controlable don't worry." Says Cisco.

"Thanks." Answers Hartley sarcastically.

"The gauntlets Hartley! What kind of frequency is this?" Cisco shouts a bit. I see he's becoming angry.

Only at this moment Hartley sees I'm here. He looks at me as if he needs any kind of confirmation.

"Do as he says Hartley." I see with a sweet tone.

Hartley opens his mouth and is about to say something when I hear footsteps behind me, their approaching fast. This person is running. That's when Caitlin comes running around the corner.

"Cisco! Riley! It's here." She screams.

"Inside the cell now!" Cisco instructs everyone to do.

I run into the cell, into Hartley's arms. He embrases me like he did this morning, just a little more protective this time.

"Uh, sorry, what's coming?" He asks?

That's when we see the ugly dementor like creature everyone in the city has been talking about. And now it's here, in Star Labs. The cell door closes just in time before the dementor crashes into it. 

"Holy Harry Potter!" Hartley says in disbelieve of what he's seeing. I giggle a little. How I've missed his funny comments.

The dementor crashes into the glass of the cell again but this time it had made huge crackes on the glass. 

"Well isn't this fantastic!" Hartley shouts at Cisco.

"Look. We're going to be safe in here, these cells are..." He can't even finish his sentence before Hartley fills it in in his place.

"Impenetrable?" He makes a look. Hartley has now pushed me behind him as a sort of protection.

"Dad?! Barry?!" I scream for their help but no response.

Cisco takes the gauntlets and puts them in front of him facing the glass wall of the cell.

"No, you'll shatter the glass." Says Hartley quickely.

"You have a better plan?"

"As a matter of fact, give me those!"

"No!"

"Now, Cisco!"

He hands over the gauntlets to Hartley and gives me a look that says 'you really don't see how annoying he is?' 

"What are you going to do?" Asks Caitlin.

"These cells have speakers linked thoughout Star Labs. I rigged these gauntlets to emit a destructive signal if they were ever disarmed. If I can just find the right frequency of whatever the hell that thing is, well, let's just say you'll be glad you're in here with me." He explains.

I get the same look again from Cisco. Hartley presses a couple of buttons and then a shrieking sound come out of the speakers. I put my hands against my ears truely understanding what Hartley must be going through. The dementor seems to hate the sound just as much as we do and does the same thing and it takes of. Hartley puts his arms around me which I really needed right now. I see Cisco watching us.

--

"I'm sorry that we didn't come sooner." Says Barry while we walk back to the main space of Star labs with my dad following him with his wheelchair. Hartley is still in the pipelines.

"It's alright , Inky is gone. I don't see anything." Replies Cisco flicking through the the surveillance cameras. he hesitates for a moment but says...

"You know, we'd be toast if it wasn't for Hartley and those gauntlets." He looks at me. I give him a smile back. I know what he said earlier was true, that he didn't want to hurt me. He just wanted to protect me. I know he doesn't trust Hartley. He never did, so why blame him. 

"Well, self-preservation is a very strong motivator, but he stays in the cell until I say otherwise." And he did it again. My dad ruined the moment

"Why can't you ever see the good in him dad? You once did." I say.

He gives me a look as a warning to shut up, but I deside to give more.

"I mean, he saved my life in there. All of our lifes. And you're just to good to see it aren't you?" I feel the anger rise in my veins.

Caitlin quickely changes the subject before anything escalates... "So, the two places the thing has attacked are here and CCPD, the common denominator being..." Barry finishes her sentence.

"Me..."