Every Breath You Take

21

He clinked glasses with his ancestor before taking a sip of his whiskey.

"I appreciate you coming down and meeting with me," Joe said.

Eobard smiled faintly. "Its nice to have someone who wants to have a drink with me. Carrie invited me to come along with Caitlin and Cisco to a gathering but, well...I'd hate to slow them down..."

"She's a good girl. Probably worried about you being isolated and lonely," he replied. "You know our conversation the other day got me thinking... You said as a scientist you look for the probable?"

"That's right," he agreed with a nod.

"And we have both recently seen things that redefine what is possible..."

"Yes. Yes we have. And we both know the direct cause of those things."

"Your Accelerator explosion."

"Evolutionary leaps following the creation of a new technology. That simple."

Joe chuckled "Like the roomba."

His lips quirked upwards. "Yes. Like the roomba."

"Okay. So humor me here..."

"Mmhmmm?" he hummed faintly before sipping his drink.

"So if we know that..." Joe glanced around warily for possible eavesdroppers as someone passed their table before continuing. "...that Meta-humans were created by the particle accelerator and testimony shows that a meta-human may have been involved with the murder of Nora Allen fourteen years ago... I seems to me that way back then there must have been another particle accelerator or something similar..."

"Another particle accelerator..." He shook his head. "I can assure you that would be extremely unlikely, Detective. And if there were...I don't recall any dark matter or lightning storms before I moved to town... Do you?"

He sipped his drink, watching the gears working in his ancestor's head as Joe leaned back.

"No. No I don't...." He muttered and then eyed Eobard. "...when did you move to town, anyway, Dr Wells?"

Eobard leaned back as well, setting his drink onto the table. He had been enjoying the time with his ancestor, enjoyed getting to know him. He had almost let himself forget how perceptive and intelligent Police Chief West could be. "Something tells me you already know the answer to that question, Detective. This whole helping yo solve the murder of Nora Allen...you were never looking for my help, were you?"

"You opened your Lab a month after Nora's murder. You mind telling me what you were doing in Central City before that?"

Eobard reached into his pocket, pulling out his wallet; he withdrew a twenty and set it on the table beside his half-empty drink. "I was starting over."

"Starting what over?"

Eobard shook his head as he backed that damned chair up away from the table. "And here I thought we were just two guys sharing a friendly drink. If you want answers, Detective...Tess Morgan. Look her up."

-------

"Doctor." Joe's voice caused Eobard to look up from his monitor, which was replaying Carrie's vitals during her fight with Tony Woodward.

"Detective." He turned the chair to face him. "Are you hear to make more accusations?"

"Actually..." Joe set down a box containing a bottle of whiskey. "I'm here to make amends. I looked up Tess Morgan." He waited for Eobard to look at him and continued: "I'm sorry for your loss."

He gestured for Joe to sit; as he did, Eobard picked up the box.

"You two were research partners in Maryland...?"

"Yes, we were. We were...married to the work as much as each other. After the car accident...I could not go back to the work. Could not go back to our lab...."

"So you moved here."

"Yes. Where no one knew me--" which was important because there was no way he could deceive those still living that were close to the real Harrison Wells that he really was Harrison Wells. "--where no one could remind me of what I had lost...and...I found it difficult, the starting over and rebuilding... I did it in fourteen years. Tess...could have done it in four."

And she could have. Of the pair, she was the brighter of the two.

He still had a performance to complete though.

"Believe me. She...she..." He shook his head a bit and looked at Joe. "...at the time of Nora Allen's murder, the particle accelerator that I would eventually create was but a notion, much less than a reality. So whomever – or whatever – is responsible for her death, it did not originate from me or from my work."

"I'm sorry I doubted you. But...I still hope I can count on your help."

The balls on this man. Maybe that was where he got it from? Certainly not from Eddie Thawne...

He pulled the glasses off, chuckling at Joe. "You don't give up, do you?"

"Nope," Joe shook his head. "Not until I get my man."

Eobard knew he didn't. None of his ancestors did.

"I owe that to Carrie and to Henry."

He slipped the glasses back on. "Carrie is very lucky to have you, Joe."

Joe nodded with a smile. "She's a good kid. I'm glad I was there for her."