#captain singh

"Can I trust you two knuckleheads to behave in there?" Joe West asked upon parking his car. 

"I will if he does." Cisco muttered as he began unloading a cartful of tech and instruments Joe couldn't have begun to name to take into the precinct.

Hartley scoffed. "Please, I am an upstanding citizen."

"Uh, are we forgetting the part where you blew up a building and tried to kill us?"

"Again with the hyperbole, Cisco-"

"Boys." Joe interrupted with a warning look before gesturing for them to follow him into the building. They fell into step behind him.

"Okay so, officially I'm the S.T.A.R. Labs tech liaison, you're the junior tech liaison." Cisco explained under his breath.

"Excuse you, why am I the junior liaison? I'm at least six years your senior, I should have seniority." Hartley argued.

"Yeah well I've been here longer so I actually have seniority." Cisco hissed back.

Joe pretended not to hear them on the ride up in the elevator, but found it difficult to ignore when the two began arguing about Wells. He couldn't help but take a half-step back, closer to the dubious fount of information on the man. It was a more personal insight into his character than anyone had been willing to give him so far. Though, with the source being a public menace who'd given everyone he'd talked to in the last week a massive headache, he'd take the information with a whole margarita's worth of salt. 

"Embustero," Cisco snapped as they strode into the bullpen. "That's libel!" 

"If I was lying, it would be slander, you moron," Hartley shot back. "Libel is only in print."

"Oh, cool, thanks, Professor Wikipedia. That really clears up the part where you keep acting like Dr. Wells is secretly the devil."

"Not secretly. You're just painfully unobservant."

Cisco stopped short in the middle of the bullpen, the cart's wheels giving a protesting squeak. Around them, phones rang, keyboards clacked, officers moved in brisk lines between desks, and none of it did a thing to soften the sharp edge in Hartley's voice.

Joe shot them a warning glance over his shoulder. Hartley ignored it.

Cisco lowered his voice anyway, anger tightening it. "You know what? No. You don't get to come in here acting like you were the only person who ever got screwed over by him."

Hartley's mouth twitched. "I never said I was."

"Then maybe stop talking like Caitlin and I are idiots because we didn't figure out sooner that he let the accelerator go online after you warned him it could blow."

"I warned him it could tear a hole through the city, that people would die, that the fall would be on not just him but everyone at S.T.A.R. Labs, and he did it anyway," Hartley said. "He risked your lives, your careers, and your futures. You can dress that up in as much reverent little nonsense as you like but it doesn't change what he did."

Cisco's grip tightened on the cart handle. "Everybody else bailed after the explosion. He helped us rebuild everything. He helped Caitlin after Ronnie..."

"And I suppose I should give him credit for cleaning up after himself?" Hartley sneered.

Joe slowed just enough that they nearly walked into his back, giving them another look that said behave without him having to waste breath on the word. They moved around him, still glaring at each other.

Cisco leaned in closer, jaw tight. "You don't know anything about what he's done for us lately."

Hartley laughed once under his breath. It wasn't pleasant. "You think because he admitted one thing that means the ledger is balanced? You think telling you he knowingly gambled with your lives somehow makes him honest?" He scoffed softly. "Please."

Cisco shoved the cart harder than necessary around a desk corner. "At least he told us."

Hartley stopped.

"He only told you because I forced him to," Hartley said quietly. "And even then he trimmed it down into something you could swallow."

Cisco glared back. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Hartley moved again, closing the distance between them until they were nearly shoulder to shoulder, his voice low enough that no one else could possibly make it out over the noise of the bullpen.

"It means that men like Harrison Wells never confess because they've suddenly discovered a conscience." His gaze cut, briefly, toward Joe's back and then back to Cisco. "They confess because they need to keep the people around them from asking the right questions."

Cisco laughed, but it came out thin. "You really can't help yourself, can you?"

"Can't help what?"

"Being like this. Taking every single thing and twisting it into proof that he's some kind of master manipulator."

Hartley's expression did not change. "He let people die because he wanted his machine turned on."

"That is not-"

"It is exactly that." Hartley's voice rose just slightly. "And you know it, otherwise you wouldn't be this defensive. Continue defending him until the day you die if you want, waste your last breath on him if it makes you feel better but in the end, he'll rip your heart out, too."

"Whose heart is getting ripped out?" A low voice asked dryly before Cisco or Joe could fully process the ominous and far too personal-sounding statement.

Joe turned as Detective Bennet Harrow approached with Captain Singh. David spoke next, his voice clearer and more authoritative than Bennet's.

"Good afternoon, Detective West. Officer Harrow, these are our liaisons with S.T.A.R. Laboratories; Cisco Ramon and Hartley Rathaway."

For a moment, Hartley and Cisco both looked offended. David ignored them.

"They'll be assisting with the investigation into the homicide at Iron Heights Penitentiary. Joe, I've already spoken to Allen, he'll meet you there."

Joe nodded.

Hartley turned toward Harrow fully then, annoyance pausing just long enough to become appraisal.

Tall. Broad through the shoulders. Pale blond hair clipped short with military neatness. Scruff framing a severe mouth that looked like it had forgotten how to smile. There was something aggravatingly solid about him, as if he'd been carved out of oak and departmental policy, and Hartley found himself noticing the sharp blue of his eyes before he could stop himself.

Harrow let his gaze settle on Hartley for a beat too long before shifting to Cisco and the cart between them.

"This the equipment?" he asked.

Cisco blinked. "Uh, yeah."

Harrow nodded once. "Good. Follow me."

Hartley arched a brow. "No 'please'?" He commented snidely.

Those blue eyes cut back to him. Cooler now. Assessing. "You can stay here if you'd rather."

Joe had to bite the inside of his cheek not to laugh. Cisco failed entirely, a snort slipping out loud enough to earn him a filthy look from Hartley.

Hartley straightened, chin lifting. "Lead on, then."

Harrow did. Hartley fell into step beside him almost immediately, ignoring Cisco's muttered "that's new."

"Unstoppable force meets immovable object?" Joe commented to Cisco under his breath as Harrow and Hartley pulled away from them.

"Oh yeah, big time." Cisco confirmed. "This is gonna be a disaster."

"Maybe they'll annoy each other to death." Joe suggested.