Chapter Text
Harry Wells was particularly pissed off today.
He and Alex Darrow met each other in the lounge early this morning, and his hair was uncharacteristically messy from sleep. Alex thought it was adorable, of course, but she was pretty sure he wasn’t intending it. He also had a look in his eyes that could melt steel. It didn’t help when Alex accidentally got in his way a couple of times. Each time, he fixed her with a stare that made her want to hide under the bed.
Now, he was pacing back and forth in the Cortex, his boots thumping against the Epoxy floor, his hands on his hips, his face hard and his eyes blazing behind his glasses, and Alex's, Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon’s heads were moving back and forth as they watched him.
“Ugh, Harry, would you stop pacing?” Cisco said loudly from his spot, sitting at the desk with a bag of pretzels in his hand. He rolled his eyes. “You’re starting to give me whiplash.”
“Then stop watching,” Harry growled at him and continued pacing.
Cisco stared at him and then pretended to growl back.
“What’s wrong, Harry?” Caitlin chimed in, leaning against the metal railing in front of the desk and crossing her arms. She fought a smile.
Harry shifted his icy blue eyes to her and grinned bitterly. “Nothing’s wrong, Snow,” he said tightly. “Nothing at all.” His grin promptly dropped and he glared at them all before striding out of the room. They all stared after him.
“Okayyy,” Alex said, dragging the word out.
Cisco sighed and shook his head. He put his feet up on the desk. “I swear, you put him and a moody teenager in the throes of angst in the same room together, and you wouldn’t be able to tell them apart.” He popped a pretzel into his mouth.
Caitlin smirked at him. “He may be gruff at times—”
“Okay, that is the most generous thing you’ve ever said,” Cisco cut her off, gesturing at her with the bag of pretzels.
“But at least he’s not anything like the last Wells,” Caitlin finished pointedly.
“That’s for sure,” Cisco muttered, looking down at the floor. “Good and bad.”
Alex hesitated. It wasn’t the first time they’d mentioned the “last Wells”, the version of Harrison Wells they spent years with before she ever met them, the one that first trained Barry and helped make him the Flash, the Wells that may have not even been Wells. And she had to admit, she’d been dying to know more. So she leaned forward in her chair next to Cisco and rested her forearms on the desk. “Uh, guys?” she began tentatively.
Caitlin looked at her and smiled gently. “Yeah, honey?”
“What’s up?” Cisco asked around a mouthful of pretzel.
Alex mashed her lips together. “Um…I don’t want to upset you or anything.” Yeah, it’s a little late for that. “But…I’d like to know. What…what was the other Wells like? I mean, Thawne?”
A moment of silence followed that made Alex tense. She was about to rescind the question when Caitlin and Cisco exchanged a glance and then looked resolutely at her.
“Hold on to your seat, girl,” Cisco said, laying the bag of pretzels onto the desk and leaning back. “You’re about to go for a ride.”