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Hartley hadn't slept well since the hospital had released him. He couldn't. Why hadn't he said something? Maybe he could have avoided all this. He'd been too stupid though. Too stupid and too scared. For the tenth time he tried to call Barry, but once again no one picked up. Hartley's thoughts were spinning through his head. Where was Barry? Why wasn't he picking up his phone? Had something happened to him during the explosion?
Hartley's heart almost beat out of his chest. No, Barry was alright. He had to be. He was the only right thing in Hartley's life before the explosion. Now it seemed Hartley had nothing anymore. He sat up and tried to organise the hurricane flying through his head. Iris. Iris would know where Barry was. Why would Iris tell Hartley though? She thought he and Barry were just casual acquaintances. It had seemed like a good idea to keep their relationship secret at the time. Both of them had known well that a cop father meant an overprotective father. Now Hartley would have dealt would a thousand overprotective parents if someone would tell him where Barry was. Considering that he had nothing left to loose, Hartley decided to pay Iris a visit at Jitters the next day.
To Hartley's surprise Iris had willingly told him Barry was in a coma. She also said that his former colleagues from StarLabs were taking care of him. Iris almost rolled her eyes as he ran out of Jitters worry written across his face. Neither of those boys had been subtle before this disaster either.
Hartley continued running down the street all the way to StarLabs. He didn’t slow his pace when he entered the building. All he could think about was Barry. His body moved through the halls on auto-pilot. In a fleeting thought he congratulated himself on keeping the ID card that let him through the locked doors. Hartley threw door after door open praying to find anyone that could bring him to Barry. Finally he came tumbling into the right room with a loud crash. Caitlin, as the only one present, jumped out of her chair with a scream in shock of the loud noise.
In confusion she looked up and asked “Hartley? What are you doing-”
Catching up with his breath Hartley interrupted her “Where is he?” Starting to loose his composure even further he continued pressing “Please, Caitlin. Please, where is he. I need, I need to see him”
Cisco and Wells denied Hartley the answer to his question though as they came into the room. Hartley noticed the Wells was now in a wheelchair but he couldn’t bring himself to car much. After all this was all his fault. It was all Wells’ fault Hartley tried to convince himself. It was Wells’s fault, but if Hartley hadn’t been so stupid maybe he could have stopped it. Maybe Hartley was at fault too. His heart rate sped up even more. Neither Cisco nor Wells hid their surprise at seeing Hartley.
“Ah, he returns to StarLabs. I thought we were below you.” Cisco taunted. Hartley realised that Wells hadn’t told his super team that he had fired Hartley. All they knew was that Hartley had left.
“This isn’t about you Cisco” Hartley’s composure was crumbling “Where is he? Tell me! Please!” Hartley turned to face Cisco and Wells when he caught a glimpse through the door Cisco and Wells had just come through. Barry was lying motionless on a pristine white bed.
Hartley’s body moved on it’s own accord as he pushed past Cisco and Wells into the room where Barry lay. He collapsed next to the bed, clutching Barry’s hand like it was his lifeline. Sobs started to shake through his body. Unsure of what to do, the others cast nervous glances at each other. Making up her mind Caitlin kneeled down next to Hartley and gently shook on his shoulder.
Hartley reacted as if someone had set off a bomb inside him “Leave me alone” he shouted through his sob “This is all my fault!”
Caitlin tried to reason with him “Hartley, no one knew the accelerator would explode.” Through his sobs she could make out phrases like “not true” and once again "all my fault".
She tried to convince him again “It can’t have been your fault.”
After a while of insisting, Hartley’s sobs slowed. Looking up he exclaimed “You’re right. It’s his fault!” pointing an accusing finger at Wells.
“Hartley, Wells didn’t know. No one knew.” Caitlin tried again.
“I told you. I warned you and you ignored my!” Hartley continued getting up. “You ignored me and you fired me!” Hartley started walking up towards Wells. “And then no one would believe me! I went everywhere trying to stop this!” he was shouting now. “But the police wrote me off as a stupid child! I couldn’t do anything under my real name could I? Because then you would have come after me full force!” Hartley’s voice faltered “I couldn’t even tell my own boyfriend the truth, that’s how scared I was! I asked, I begged him to leave! Now look where we are.” Hartley fell down at Barry’s side again. “Now look where we are!” he shouted through tears. None of the three remaining had a clue what to do. None of them had ever seen Hartley acting so emotional.
In shock Cisco turned around and asked Wells “Is it true?” Trying to save his face Wells started stammering out an excuse. “Is it true?” Cisco pressed again.
Wells gave in “Hartley did come to me with his concerns about the accelerator. You have to understand though the things we could have found out. It would have changed the world! It has changed the world!”
“So you risked that without letting us know? You decide that it was worth the lives of everyone in this city? You decided it was worth Ronnie’s life?” Caitlin asked him, disbelief pouring out of her voice.
“Caitlin, I-” Harrison didn’t get far as she interrupted him.
“Get out. Just get out.”
Understanding her reasoning he started wheeling himself out of the building.
It took Cisco and Caitlin a while but they managed to calm Hartley down. While they were both outside Barry’s room, Hartley had somehow found enough space on the cot to curl up and fall asleep next to Barry. The next few months were difficult for them all. Iris and Joe visited Barry a lot while Hartley almost lived at StarLabs. No one had told either of them that Hartley had been in a relationship with Barry but the West’s weren’t stupid. Every once in a while, Iris and Caitlin would drag Hartley out of the lab to grab some coffee or Joe came down to chat with him. Cisco and Hartley bonded over the implants they were developing for Hartley’s ears. Caitlin had fumed with outraged that he hadn’t told them anything when she found his painkillers. When they finished the implants Barry still wasn’t awake and Hartley had nothing left to distract himself with. So he sat down next to Barry and read to him. He read science fiction novels and he read biographies of famous scientist. By far his favourite thing to read to Barry though were the police reports that Joe provided.
Months later Hartley was in the middle of describing the robbery of a corner shop when Barry woke up.
Groggily Barry commented “You have a nice voice, y’should read aloud more.”
Too startled to think of a witty comeback Hartley stared in disbelief for a few seconds before scrambling to kiss Barry.
“I love you. Don’t ever do that again.” he mumbled as they broke apart.
“I’m not planning to. I love you too” Barry replied in a soft tone.
They both sat in each others embrace for a while longer until everyone else realised that Barry was awake.