elrhiarhodan

Title: Like a Line in the Sand
Author: elrhiarhodan
Fandom: The Flash
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Joe West, Harrison Wells (Earth-2)
Spoilers: S2.06 – Enter Zoom
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: Graphic mention of violent child death
Word Count: ~1300
Beta Credit: None
Summary: An episode tag to the end of Enter Zoom. Joe has a much needed conversation with Harrison Wells about a good parent's responsibilities to their children.

A/N: Inspired by Wells' monologue at the end of S2.011, Potential Energy (but no spoilers), my first attempts at writing both Joe West and Earth-2 Harrison Wells.

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Joe doesn't hate many people. Hate is a bad thing for a cop – it leads to mistakes, often fatal ones. He might hate what some people do, but hating the person who did them is rare.

Take, for example, his wife. He might have hated what Francine did – the drugs, the lies, the disappearing, but he couldn't hate her, because Francine gave him Iris, the best thing in his life.

Leonard Snart is another example. Captain Cold, as Cisco calls him, seems to have a borderline personality. On one hand, he has no problems with committing some pretty serious crimes (including murder), but on the other, he seems to have a strangely powerful moral compass. And Barry, who's still like a Golden Retriever puppy when it comes to trusting people, insists that Snart is a good man with the makings of a hero. Joe can actually see that, and he can also understand how being Lewis Snart's son could really fuck a person up. Snart Senior had not only been a dirty cop, he'd had a reputation for cruelty that was almost hard to fathom.

He can't really hate the guy. Yes, he still wants to put him back in prison, but that has nothing to do with his personal emotions. That's simply justice.

No, Joe could count the number of people he truly hates on one hand. Probably on one finger, if he really thinks about it. And that guy is dead, wiped from existence when Eddie Thawne shot himself in the heart.

Which makes it hard not to hate the man who wears the same face, speaks with the same voice, and seems to wield a similar level of control over Barry.

He tries to avoid Harrison Wells – the real, albeit Earth-2 version – as much as possible. When situations bring him to S.T.A.R. Labs, he focuses on the other members of the team, Cisco, Caitlin, Jay Garrick (who he doesn't really trust, but certainly doesn't hate), and of course Barry. Looking at Wells reminds him of all the lies he'd believed, all the people who'd died or been killed, all the pain that Iris still feels, all the nightmares that Barry still has.

Joe knows his hatred of this man is irrational, but that's the problem with irrational feelings – they can't be controlled, at least not without serious therapy and medication.

And then that hatred becomes not so irrational, when Zoom arrives and breaks Barry. Zoom is here because of Wells, Barry goes up against Zoom because Wells believes he can defeat that monster. But it's like watching a kid pull the wings off a butterfly, the way that Zoom simply takes Barry apart.

And if he could have killed Harrison Wells right there, over Barry's broken, bleeding body, he would have. Then Cisco asks, "Who's Jesse?"

Between one heartbeat and the next, Joe's hatred dissolves like sugar in hot coffee. Wells actions, his obsessive interest in Barry and Barry's speed are now understandable. He's a father and good fathers do everything they can to protect their children. Even travel to alternate worlds and recruit the local superheroes.

And almost get them killed.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Joe finds Harrison Wells in Cisco's lab. The man is writing something on a board – calculations that are likely incomprehensible to anyone without multiple advanced degrees in theoretical physics. He watches from the doorway as Wells writes and erases and writes something else. Joe watches as the man's hand shake so hard that he can barely hold the marker.

Maybe he made a sound, maybe Wells sees his reflection in the glass – it doesn't matter – but when Wells speaks, his voice is cracked, as broken as Barry's spine.

"What the fuck do you want?" Wells turns to face him; his hands are clenched at his side. Joe wonders if he's longing for another fight.

"They've got him stabilized. Caitlin says that Barry will be all right, given time."

Wells grimaces. "Time – don't have time."

"Your daughter. Why didn't you tell us when you got here?"

"You, of all people, have to ask that? You took one look at me and did your best to kill me."

Joe doesn't try to make light of it. "Not one of my finer moments. I've never done that before. Let's just chalk it up to a visceral reaction to seeing evil."

"And I repeat – why the hell should I have trusted you? Any of you?" He waves an arm – as if to incorporate the totality of the universe. "You all have very good reasons to hate me – or at least hate the man who stole my name, my face, my life here."

"Except that Barry didn't kill you on the spot."

"I saved his life."

"So did the other one. Many times."

Wells sighs and some of the fight goes out of him. "It's not my nature to … share."

"I get it, though. I get why you did it." Joe speaks softly, as if he's doing hostage negotiations, or trying to talk down a jumper on the edge of a rooftop.

Wells gives him a look, skepticism like daggers in his glare. "Really? Turn off the good cop routine, Detective. It's neither needed nor welcome."

"I have a daughter, too. Remember?"

"Ah, yeah." Wells nods quickly, almost imperceptivity. "Iris, right? My … counterpart's ancestor was her boyfriend. He killed himself."

"Fiancé, and yes. Barry says he did it to break the timeline. It worked – to a point. I still don't understand all of it."

"Time's a funny thing. Shouldn't mess with it." Wells turns back to the board, but his hand's still shaking.

Joe stands there, despite the obvious dismissal. He catches Wells' gaze in the reflection and waits, stares, and waits some more. Wells sighs and turns back to him. "What, Detective?"

"As a cop, I know the lines that can't be crossed. I've seen children mangled, destroyed. Innocent lives taken for incomprehensible reasons. I've arrested mothers and fathers, girlfriends and boyfriends, grandmothers, nannies, and sicko strangers who thought that murdering a three year old girl and wearing her skin would be a fun way to spend an afternoon."

Joe swallows hard against the nausea that particular memory brings. "I've arrested them, testified against them, watched them get carted off for life – or better, sent to the gas chamber. But as much as I've wanted to, I've known that I can't take the law into my own hands."

Wells stares at him, his blue eyes burning.

"That line – it's the Grand-fucking-Canyon – and it can't be crossed."

"And what if it was your own daughter, what then?" Wells rasps.

"Then it becomes just a line in the sand. Whoever hurts my child, I'd end them."

"Then we're on the same page, Detective. You understand what I have to do. Zoom has my daughter."

Joe takes a deep breath. "Barry may not be my flesh and blood, but he is as much my child, too. As much as Iris is." He stalks across the room, backing Wells up against his precious calculations. "Last time, I wasn't in time to stop the pain. Last time, I let evil in the door and even offered him a seat at the table. Not again. Never again."

"You don't scare me, Detective."

"That's not my intention, Doctor. This conversation is about the responsibilities of fathers to their children. If Barry dies because of you, because of your lies and half-truths – even if it's to save your daughter's life – I will cross that line. I will end you."

Wells nods slowly, never breaking Joe's gaze. "I wouldn't expect anything less."

FIN