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the road not taken (looks real good now)

Summary:

“Care to tell me what’s going on, Bug?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Yes, obviously, darling. But we’re women of science, aren’t we? We can handle complicated.”

Patty Spivot almost kills Harry, which spirals into Tina finding out some things about her goddaughter. Though maybe not everything.

There’s also some supernatural drama going on in the background, but that’s just a normal Tuesday in Central.

Notes:

You know, at one point, I wanted to write these in chronological order...but screw it, everyone who’s reading this probably knows the gist of S1 (and the first few episodes of S2) anyway.

An extra addition, though, is that Jesse and Morgan have a telepathic link that they discovered...a few episodes ago (they even got to introduce themselves!). I haven't fully worked out the mechanics of that yet, but it is triggered by the breaches being opened and Jesse being kidnapped by Zoom—the two of them now have a direct link to each other through the breach, which they didn’t have before.

At some point, I’ll figure out how the telepathic link came to exist (after Jesse is rescued and some other stuff happens), but for now, feel free to speculate 😂

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

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“Kendra’s a what?!”

“Morgan!” Caitlin scolded, catching Morgan’s arm just before it could knock into the vial on the table. “Be careful!”

She blushed, folding a little in on herself and moving away from anything breakable. “Sorry. But come on, you can’t just drop something on me like that and expect me not to ask questions!”

“We’ve told you everything already,” Harry retorted. “Ramon had some sort of vibe that showed his girlfriend as a hawk-human hybrid.”

“A Hawkgirl?” She offered with a grin.

“Exactly.” She caught him smiling for just a moment before it disappeared. “And then someone from the past turned up, and apparently he wants to kill her and her soulmate from eons past.”

She realized where this was going. “Her soulmate…who isn’t Cisco.”

“I’d say the more concerning part is the guy who wants to kill her, but you’re not wrong.”

“Right, of course. That’s very concerning. But given that Barry isn’t here…?”

“He and the Green Arrow have teamed up.” Harry huffed a laugh. “I must say, it’s strange seeing them so friendly. Allen on my Earth never really liked the Arrow.”

Caitlin frowned at him. “I thought you didn’t know Barry on your Earth?”

“Not well,” Harry agreed, “but he applied for an internship some years ago, and he mentioned his distaste for the Arrow. A lot, actually. Something about wanting to make the world a better place, unlike certain jerks with arrows up their butts.”

Morgan frowned. “That doesn’t sound like a quote, Harry.”

“You’re too young for me to be quoting, Morgan.”

“You know what you aren’t too young for, though?” Caitlin cut in with an indulgent smile at Morgan. “Dilutions!”

Morgan groaned but took over for Caitlin anyway, pretending not to notice as Caitlin tugged Harry out into the main lab. Sometimes she hated being a teenager.


Once Caitlin was satisfied with Morgan’s dilutions, Morgan figured it was as good a time as any to ask Caitlin for help reviewing for her finals. Classes were still technically on for another week, but then she’d get the rest of that week off before finals, beginning on that Monday, the 14th, when her calculus exam was. Her intro biology exam was on the 17th, with her other two classes being essay classes.

Midway through the quizzing, Caitlin excused herself to the bathroom, and Morgan glanced at the last flashcard she’d quizzed: drawing the Krebs cycle. She stood and drew it slowly by the picture on the card. Then, without looking, she tried to draw the first third of it. She’d only just finished when a shout pierced the air.

“Put your hands in the air! Dr. McGee was right, she did see you!”

Mum? Who did she—? Then it hit her, and she hurried out to find Harry with his hands raised, a strange silver thing in one of them. Patty Spivot, who’d been helping Tina with the break-in case, had him at gunpoint.

Don’t let her kill him!

Yeah, obviously! I’m not an idiot!

“Wait, stop!” Morgan pleaded, stepping in front of Harry. “This isn’t who you think it is!”

“Step aside, Miss Wells,” Patty warned.

“Or what? You’ll shoot me?” Morgan really wished Jesse would calm down—her head on the verge of exploding really wasn’t helping her confidence factor.

“Morgan!” Harry hissed.

“Who is he then,” Patty challenged, “if not Harrison Wells?”

He is Harrison Wells, Morgan thought sadly, this city has just never known Harrison Wells. And neither have I, really.

“Well, I am Harrison Wells,” Harry explained slowly, stepping away from Morgan and gripping her shoulder to keep her from shielding him again, “just not the one you—”

The bullet from Patty’s gun cut him off, and stunned as Morgan was, she couldn’t do anything but catch Harry as he fell. “Harry? Harry, stay with me. Caitlin!” She cried. “Caitlin, something’s happened!”

Caitlin came running in just then, gasping at the sight. “What happened?”

“Bullet, hit him in the gut, I-I’m not sure—”

“I’ve got him,” Caitlin said. “Who—?” She looked up, scowling as she saw Patty. “Was this you?”

“That…that thing in his hand,” Patty stammered, “I-I thought it was a gun. Miss Wells, I’m so—”

“Morgan, get her out of here. I’ll start on Harry.”

Morgan took a deep breath and nodded. “On it.” Barely glancing at Patty, she led her out of the Cortex.

“Miss Wells—”

Morgan sighed, rubbing her head as the pain settled into a dull ache. “Just Morgan.”

“Morgan, then.” Patty pulled on her hand to stop her. “Dr. McGee was asking after you, she’s worried. I’m assuming she’s your—?”

“Godmother. Well…mother, really.”

“Even with your dad still alive?”

“He’s not.” Morgan sighed. “It’s a long story. But…could you not tell anyone that you saw Harrison Wells here today?”

Patty frowned. “You realize that’s a huge breach of ethics.”

“Joe West should be able to fill you in,” Morgan said. You might take it better coming from him.”

“Take what better?”

“The multiverse, Detective.” Morgan grinned, shooting off a text to Caitlin. “Now, let’s go see my mother, shall we?”

After all, if she didn’t do this now, she never would.


Tina was nearly beside herself, hugging Morgan so tightly that Morgan feared it might break her. But she couldn’t exactly blame Tina—this was a pretty big secret to keep.

Her phone dinged just then, a reply from Caitlin.

 

<tell her!>

<but won’t barry & cisco be mad??>

<they can suck it up, tina’s not dangerous and wells was her friend. just be sure to swear her to secrecy and all that>

<yeah yeah ofc cait <3 thank you!!>

 

“Care to tell me what’s going on, Bug?” Tina frowned. “Last I heard, you were done with STAR Labs and Central itself, only coming to see me. And now I hear from Detective Spivot that you’re defending Harrison Wells? Who’s…still alive, somehow?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Yes, obviously, darling. But we’re women of science, aren’t we? We can handle complicated.”

Morgan took a deep breath. “Okay. So…you know the multiverse? Well, apparently it’s real. Zoom is a speedster from another Earth, and he came here to kill the Flash.”

“Barry, you mean.”

“Y—wait, um. I mean, no…?”

Tina laughed. “I’ve known for almost a year now, there’s no point in trying to hide it, Morgan.”

Morgan blinked. “How did you—?”

“I’m a scientist, we’re paid to be perceptive.”

“Right.” Morgan was almost tempted to bring up Hartley as a counterexample, but…all things considered, that felt tasteless. “Well, you’re right. Barry’s the Flash. And Zoom’s been sending metas to kill him, who knows why, and Harrison Wells came from that same Earth because he needs Barry’s help to defeat Zoom.”

Tina paled. “A few days ago, on the news…they said Zoom paralyzed him. That was…?”

“Yeah.” Morgan’s voice hitched. “I was so mad at him for that, Mum, you have no idea. I was so scared he’d be paralyzed forever. Even with speed healing…who’s to stop him from doing that again?”

“How often have you been over there?” Tina demanded, gripping Morgan’s arms tightly.

“Don’t worry, they benched me. I’ve visited, but no involvement.” Morgan winced as a searing pain ripped through her head. “Oh, and there’s something else I should mention. I get intermittent migraines because Earth-2 Wells’ daughter was kidnapped by Zoom, and she’s telepathically linked to me. She says hi, by the way.”

I didn’t say that.

But you were going to, weren’t you?

…touché.

 Tina blinked. “That’s…and just how long have you been keeping this from me?”

“Only slightly longer than you’ve been keeping your relationship with Dr. Allen a secret from me.”

“Morgan—”

Morgan winced. “I’m sorry. That was—you’re entitled to your secrets, Mum.”

“I was going to tell you, Bug, fairly soon,” Tina reassured her. “He and I agreed a few days ago that we’d tell you. How’d he beat me to it?”

“I met him. He came to visit STAR after Barry got paralyzed…and he mentioned that you talk about me a lot.” Morgan grinned. “I’m flattered.”

“Well, you’re a part of my life, Bug.” Tina smiled. “I could hardly not mention you.”

Morgan hugged Tina tightly. “I missed you, Mum. I promise I’ll come visit more.”

“You do what you need to do, Morgan, as long as you remember that you always have a safe place to land.”

You know, this is sweet and all, but aren’t you forgetting something?

Forgot…? Oh, right!

“Harry’s the one you saw stealing from Mercury,” Morgan said, looking cautiously up at Tina. “He had a good reason, I swear, and that thing he stole has been incredibly useful against Zoom’s meta cronies. Would it be too much of an ethical breach to ask you to drop the charges?”

Tina frowned. “I’ll have to meet him first. Tomorrow, I think. Do you have classes?”

“Just one in the morning, then I’m off until finals next week.”

“Right, then. Sleep here tonight, go to class tomorrow, and then we’ll meet up for lunch and go visit STAR. And Morgan?”

“Yeah?”

Tina’s stare felt like it could pierce Morgan straight through. “No more secrets.”

“No more secrets,” Morgan agreed, feeling guilty as the reassurance relaxed Tina.


When they finally got to STAR the next day, it turned out that Jay had used his phasing abilities to remove the bullet from Harry’s chest.

“What happened to Zoom stealing your speed?”

Jay’s eyes flashed, but he looked to Caitlin instead of speaking.

“We thought of making an artificial speed enhancer,” Caitlin explained, “V9. It might give Barry the extra boost he needs to beat Zoom.”

“And I didn’t want him to do it,” Jay said, “because the consequences of V9 are dangerous. It’s a very powerful drug, Morgan.”

She paled and nodded. “That’s a good point. The withdrawal for something like that…”

“It’s addictive. Dangerously so. And I’m still not sure about Barry using it. But…” he sighed. “But it’s what I used, to save Dr. Wells.”

“Thank you for that,” Harry said, though his expression was still wary.

“Don’t mention it.”

“All of this is well and good,” Tina interrupted with a frown, “but I still have some questions.”

Jay looked confused. “And you are?”

“Let me guess,” Harry said with a small smile. “Dr. Tina McGee of Mercury Labs. Morgan’s godmother.”

Tina whirled on Morgan. “Just how much have you told him?”

“Only your name and that you were my godmother!” Morgan insisted. “Nothing about where you work. I’m guessing he knows you.”

“You hold the same position on my Earth,” Harry explained. “We were both TAs in a college class, and ever since, we were friends for a time. Though we did have a…difference of opinion.”

Tina scowled. “That sounds familiar.”

“Difference of opinion?” Morgan frowned. “You never mentioned.”

“It never came up. She and I disagreed on my views of metahumans. Nearly all of them worked for Zoom, I simply proposed an alert app to ping for any metas in the vicinity. Tina disagreed, calling it generalization, bringing up civilian metas. I didn’t think it was worth the risk of betrayal, she didn’t think I was being fair. Things between us…fractured, after that.”

“Do you regret it?” Tina asked, her gaze hard as she moved slowly in front of Morgan.

Morgan nonetheless saw Harry frown. “Zoom took my daughter, and his right-hand three are all powerful metas. So no, I don’t. My priority is my daughter, Dr. McGee, and if I can keep others safe from Zoom while getting her back, I would do it again in a heartbeat.”

Tina pursed her lips. “Well, then. It seems your Tina had the right idea.”

“I didn’t come here to make friends,” he retorted. “Can you tell me honestly that you wouldn’t do the same for Morgan?”

Tina had no answer for that. But Morgan wasn’t sure she liked any of this, regardless.

Did you know?

It’s more complicated than that.

Don’t try that with me. Did. You. Know?

Zoom’s cronies are all metas. All of them. I didn’t like what Dad was doing, and I still don’t, but I understand why he did it.

There was a time when Morgan felt sorry for Jesse Wells. When, even through her headaches and irritation, she could extend sympathy to the terrified kidnapped girl who clearly had no control over this.

But now, knowing what Jesse knew, what she endorsed, Morgan decided that she hated Jesse Wells.


Tina had to go to Mercury afterwards, and though Morgan could’ve driven home, she wasn’t sure she liked the idea of being alone with her thoughts. So she stuck around in the medbay, reminding Tina that Harry wouldn’t try anything so soon after that earlier conversation, and with the Team all running around.

Tina still didn’t feel great about it, but she did allow Morgan to stay, which was good enough.

“You know,” Caitlin remarked, with a glance at Morgan, “Tina didn’t seem all that surprised at Harry’s existence. Even though the only Harrison she’s known for the past 16 years was a psychopath and not really Harrison. You’d think she would call Harry out on possibly being Thawne as soon as she saw him.”

“Definitely strange,” Morgan agreed, eyes fixed on the medbay’s bedsheets.

“You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you, Morgan?”

“Of course she does,” Harry said. “Look at her, Snow. The guilt’s written all over her face.”

Morgan frowned. “How do you—?”

“Same tells as my daughter.”

His daughter. Morgan’s hand curled into a fist at the mention of Jesse Wells, apple of her father’s eye, enabler of anti-metahuman technology.

“Morgan?”

She sighed. “Fine, I’ll tell you. Mum doesn’t know about Thawne.”

Caitlin frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, she thinks Harrison Wells is the man who killed Barry’s mother and did all of this and died under mysterious circumstances last May. Just like the rest of the world.”

Harry frowned. “You don’t seriously mean to keep the truth of her best friend from her?”

“Not until I know how much of Harrison Wells Thawne was really faking,” Morgan said. “The way I see it, either my birth dad was exactly like Thawne, or Mum just…willfully ignored the drastic changes to her best friend and let him raise me for a good chunk of my life.”

“Or there’s a third option,” Caitlin said.

“What’s that?”

“Maybe Thawne was a very good manipulator. Did you forget that?”

“Mum’s smart.”

“What are we, chopped liver?”

“No, Cait. Mum’s really smart. And she’s allegedly known my parents since college.” Morgan shook her head. “You can’t know someone that well and not realize that their personality’s changing.”

“He could make you believe anything, remember? With the things he said?” Caitlin frowned. “Morgan, he did it to you enough times, didn’t he? Making you question th—”

“TMI,” Morgan interrupted sharply with a glance at Harry, who was still looking at her with that intense expression that was making Morgan angrier by the second. “And…look, Mum cut ties with him at a certain point anyway. But she left me with him, for three years, after raising me basically on her own for six. What does that tell you?”

“I—”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m not taking second opinions.”

“Snow,” Harry said suddenly, “you should check on Ramon.”

“Cisco?” Caitlin frowned. “Isn’t he still busy with—” then she caught the look he was giving her, and she nodded quickly. “Right, yeah. I’ll be back.”

“Take your time.”

After Caitlin left, Morgan clenched her hands in her lap and looked resolutely at a spot on the wall. The paint was chipping slightly—no surprise, all things considered, but it would really be time to fix that soon—

“Do you really think your father is anything like Thawne?”

And there was still that hole in the roof, wasn’t there? Had anyone fixed that yet? Morgan thought she’d seen a squirrel the other day, but maybe—

“Morgan.”

“He’s either like Thawne or like you,” she fired back. “And frankly, I hate both of those options.”

Harry looked startled. “Why?”

Why?” She repeated in disbelief. “Because of what you created, that’s why! Because of what you did to those metas! Because—”

Because I’m a meta. A civilian meta. If I lived on your Earth, if I hated my powers because of Zoom’s tyranny, if I just wanted to live as a normal citizen with my powers hidden…

Would you allow me that? Or would you hate me on principle, because I have the meta gene?

“What does it matter to you? Are you a meta?”

“No,” she lied, as calmly as she could—a look at his face reassured her that he believed her. “But do I have to be a meta to feel something for other metas? Is it such a novel concept to have empathy for other people?!”

Harry chuckled softly. “You sounded like Jesse just now.”

She frowned. “What?”

“She used to tell me those same things. About civilian metas, about empathy for other people. She hated what I was doing with the alert apps.”

No. No, that’s not—she said—

But Jesse’s words from earlier rang in her head: Zoom’s cronies are all metas. All of them. I didn’t like what Dad was doing, and I still don’t, but I understand why he did it.

“Was…was your Tina—?”

“Jesse’s godmother? No. We weren’t that close. We only really had work to link us…and maybe that’s why we fell apart so easily.”

Silence fell between them for a while longer, until Morgan finally burst out, “Why’d you do it?”

Harry sighed. “You know why, Morgan.”

“But all those metas—”

“The ones under the radar are much fewer than the ones working for Zoom. Do you know how Zoom recruits metas? He hunts them down and gives them a choice: join him, or die.”

“How does he find them?”

“He has his ways. This Team does nothing but underestimate him.”

Something’s off here. How does he know so much about Zoom?

Zoom was struck by the accelerator, affected just like everyone else. Dad made it his business to find out as much about him as possible.

Morgan scowled—the question had been rhetorical, and she’d hoped never to hear Jesse Wells’ voice again. Can’t you take a hint?

She heard Jesse sigh. Look, just…talk to him, okay? If you don’t get it after that, then fine. We don’t owe each other anything anyway.

“You’ve been staring at me for quite a while.” Harry’s wary observation snapped her out of her thoughts.

“Just trying to process what you told me.” Which wasn’t exactly a lie anyway. “You seem to know his MO awfully well.” 

“My Earth didn’t take to metas as kindly as yours did, Morgan. They were seen as…anomalies, aberrations. I had no reason to argue against that—my machine created them, I sought to undo the damage. To cure them, as it were. I funded research for it.” He sighed. “Though as of yet, it’s yielded nothing. And with Zoom on the loose, researching him was time better spent, especially since our Flash couldn’t be bothered to do it himself.”

Your Flash?”

“Jay.”

Her eyes widened. “He’s the Flash on your Earth?”

“You wouldn’t know it, would you?” Harry smiled bitterly. “He’s not much like your Barry Allen. Much more cautious…or so he calls it. I’ve always called it cowardice.”

I’ve always thought Dad was too harsh on Jay.

From what I’ve seen of Jay, I don’t think he’s the hero everyone says he is.

You have no idea what he’s like!

Morgan could hardly refute that. Jesse didn’t realize how right she was, but Morgan couldn’t exactly clue her in. Neither do you.

“And after this…well.” Harry sighed. “I don’t know if I’ll even have a home to go back to. Or a daughter to take back with me.”

She frowned. Harry had told her about his mission to save Jesse shortly after their rescue of Caitlin, though she'd found out even before that. And though this roadblock was a bit of a blow to her growing trust in him...his logic was still sound, as much as she hated to admit it. She'd just have to make sure he never found out that she was a meta too. “When we rescue Jesse—”

If we—”

When we do,” she repeated firmly, because regardless of her feelings about Jesse and Harry right now, no one deserved to be Zoom’s prisoner, “and Zoom is defeated, and you both get to go home…what will you do?”

Harry looked at her, as lost as she’d ever seen him, and softly admitted, “I don’t know.”

Notes:

And there you have it! Writing this was also an exercise in trying to explain Harry’s situation a bit. Because we see that he’smade anti-metahuman tech, which is obviously not great, but I wanted to interrogate why he might’ve made it. A protective measure against Zoom's task force would be one reason...but also, given that E2 seems to have a colder reception to metas, it could also be Harry trying to find metas that he can “cure” (although a cure hasn’t been developed yet, so he’d be moreso keeping tabs on them until he could offer up such a cure).

I’m pretty sure the only reason E1 had a warmer reception to metas (“warmer” being relative, btw) is because Thawne is a meta himself, so he would know that the metahumans aren’t “aberrations” (rather, intentionally created and existent in his time), and he wouldn’t let anti-metahuman rhetoric spread around or let a cure be discovered (at least...not before Cicada). So without that on E2, with Harry being just a normal guy who did this...he’d definitely try to research a cure and undo what happened to them.

Tina, Tess, and Harry on E1 met in undergraduate college in my headcanon! And they were much closer. Tina and Harry on E2 were more like work colleagues, I think—Harry doesn’t seem like he had help in raising Jesse at all, and I can’t imagine E2 Tina not helping out if she was close enough to Harry to be Jesse's godmother...so I figure they maybe interacted a few times before, but they were scientific peers and nothing more. Though, E2 Tina was never afraid to tell Harry when she disagreed with him! And after S2, maybe they do become proper friends.

Morgan being suspicious of Jay makes sense when you consider that she was betrayed by the person she loved most in the world...and isn't sure how her godmother factors in. I will say, though, Caitlin is closer to the truth of the matter than Morgan is!

Also, I know Harry is written as a bit softer here than he is in canon. He’d never talk this way to the other members of the Team...but remember, Morgan is identical to Jesse, who's Harry’s daughter. So he’s naturally inclined to be a bit softer towards her, even if he knows she’s not Jesse. His natural instinct is protecting/parenting Jesse...including anyone who walks, talks, and looks like her. And he’s a little less guarded when it comes to her too.

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