Kinetic Frequencies |The Flash|

|II|

It had been a full 9 months since the particular accelerator explosion and Julia was back to her day job, that she had been working at the same time as her work with S.T.A.R Labs, splitting a week with the two jobs successfully.

"Thank you for your personal time as always Doctor Palmer." Her client said out loud, but inside, his thoughts told a very different story.

"She pretends to know stuff about her clients, but she is just a kid! She doesn't know anything."

His thoughts stated and she gripped his hand quickly, as they shook hands and he walked out of her office. She sat back down at her desk and when she did, her phone rang. She pressed a button for line number one, which was her secretary. "Ren, what is up? Is there a new client?" She asked.

"Yeah, actually. I wanted to direct him to someone else, but he insisted on meeting with you. Should I send him up?" Ren asked and Julia raised her eyebrows a bit, despite knowing all too well that Ren couldn't see her.

"You have a name?" Julia asked and she heard Ren flipping through a file most likely, and she heard the papers shuffling around.

"The name is... Hartley. Hartley Rathaway." Ren read into the phone and Julia's eyebrows, they almost flew off of her head and away. "You know the guy?" He asked.

"Send him up." She said and the line clicked, as Ren hung up on the other end.

Hartley opened the door and Julia stood up. "I'm sorry." He muttered and before he could even sit down, Julia was crushing him in a hug. Hartley hugged her in return and Julia squeezed her eyes shut, as tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes.

"Damn you, Hartley Rathaway." She whispered, hugging him like her life depended on it. "Damn you." She said and he sighed.

"I am sorry, I really am." He whispered and she wiped at her eyes once she let him go from the hug, and she looked at her hands, which were a shaking mess. "Can I explain, before you slap me?" Hartley asked and Julia nodded, and she sat behind her desk again.

Hartley sat across from her and he sighed. "The last thing that I heard on the phone that night, 9 full months ago now, was you screaming in agony and sounding like you were going to die. So please, explain to me how I'm supposed to understand that you have a good excuse, for not talkin' to me for that amount of time." Julia spoke with a very sharp tone in her voice and she felt his emotions hitting her.

"How do I even explain it to her?"

Julia sighed at his thoughts. "Hartley Rathaway. You don't need to explain it to me out loud. You were affected by the particular accelerator explosions and... so was I." She said bluntly and he looks at her, his eyebrows shooting up over his glasses and she nodded at him.

"What--what can you do?" He stammered briefly, before he was able to compose himself. "What abilities did the particle accelerator give you then?" Hartley asked.

"Mind, emotions and memory." Julia murmured and Hartley looked at her with raised eyebrows, asking for a bit more information. "Hartley I can read minds." His mouth dropped open. "I'm a meta-human. I found out almost right after the wave hit me, that I now could read minds, feel emotions... the memory thing came later." She said and he looked at her, as his mouth shut.

"Can you prove it?" Hartley asked quietly of her, as he tried to process the information, that his best friend had just given to him. "Can you read my mind... or my emotions, or show me what you can do?" He asked very quietly and Julia swallowed, before a nod came from her.

Julia felt the thoughts from everybody, everyone else in the building pour into her head, but she forced them all out. She narrowed her focus to Hartley's mind, as she bowed her head slightly in concentration.

"She can read minds?"
"Man, I wish that she could have helped me these past few months. I was so stupid to keep it from her, I should have told her everything."

Julia opened her eyes and looked at him with tears in her eyes, after just a small peek into his mind. "You are not stupid, Hartley Rathaway. You had a secret and you wanted to keep it, it is not an irrational thing." She said and his eyes began to tear up as well and they began to fall. Julia reached out her hand to rest on top of his, as it was shaking on her desk. "Hey, you listen to me, very, very carefully. You hear me?" She asked and Hartley had pain in his eyes, and he nodded.

"I'm listening." He whispered as she nodded, and squeezed her hand in his and he looked at her.

"Your parents may only see a person that they don't recognize, a person that they think is irresponsible and unable to run a company because of your choice to come out. But listen to me, Hartley. They may not think you know things, they may not think that you are smart, worthy, or able to do anything... but I know that you can. I know that you are smart, that you are able and most importantly, that you are that same guy who was just as smart, when you were as 'straight' as a ruler, and are the same smart guy now." Julia said and Hartley was openly sobbing now, as she stood up and walked around her desk to wrap him in a hug. "I've got you." She murmured and he squeezed her in a hug, as she murmured comforting words.