As usual the plan had gone up in flames pretty quickly, however this time it was actual flames.
The mission hadn't exactly been a straightforward one, to be fair, but still, an entire building going up in flames and it not being any fault of Mick's was a new low for the Legend's. They were in Victorian London and had crashed a socialite house party where one of their many displaced temporal objects had landed when they broke time. They had cleaned up LA but there were still some other objects in the wrong places throughout history. The latest was an ancient vase in London 1864, when it belonged in some tomb in Egypt not to be discovered until 1922. They got the vase easily enough, and sure the fire wasn't exactly planned but only a few people died and Gideon said that the house burning down wasn't going to completely screw history, so they weren't about to break time all over again trying to fix it. However there was one little snag that came with two of the people dying. They had a child. A little, five-month old, baby girl who had been all alone in her nursery as the house burned. The only reason she survived was because Amaya had been doing recon on the upper floor of the house when the fire exploded out of control and she got the memo over the comms that she needed to get out. She had heard the baby's cries just as she ran past the nursery door, and without a second thought she took the infant with her.
Now, back on the ship, Gideon had confirmed three things: the baby's name was Katherine, she was inconsequential to the timeline, and her parents were both among the dead in the fire.
"So what are we gonna do with her?" Jax was the first to ask the inevitable question. Currently the baby wasn't in the room, and neither was Amaya. After waking up in a burning house, it wasn't exactly a mystery why Katherine didn't want to go back to sleep. Being abducted and brought to a strange place didn't help any either, and she would not allow herself to be taken from Amaya. It seemed for all her confusion and uncertainty she understood that the woman who had removed her from her crib was safe, and therefor she refused to leave her.
Not that she stopped crying even with Amaya holding her, of course. She was wailing louder than Nate's music, and no logical decision about what to do with her was going to be made when she was making it impossible for anyone to think straight, so Amaya left for her quarters with the screaming babe still in her arms, asking that somebody come inform her once an agreement for the child's fate had been reached.
"Why can't we just leave her at an orphanage here in town?" Nate asked after they had already bickered for a while, mostly explaining to Mick why leaving Katherine on a random doorstep wasn't the smartest move.
"It's not that simple," Sara insisted, "She isn't of consequence to the timeline now, so removing her wouldn't cause any problems. But putting her somewhere else, that could cause an aberration."
"What about Rip's mother?" Ray suggested, "Isn't this exact type of situation the whole reason her temporal orphanage exists?"
"Actually since the Time Masters were destroyed Mrs. Xavier has found herself facing quite the same predicament as we are now." Stein revealed,
"And you know that how?" Mick asked, "You have tea with the lady during shore leave or something?"
"Please," Stein huffed indignantly, "I overheard Mr. Hunter speaking on the phone."
"Ah, eavesdropping." Mick hummed approvingly, "I like it."
"I was not eavesdropping!" Stein hissed in defense, not that Mick or anyone else believed him, or cared.
"Ok back up," Nate interrupted, "Rip's mother runs a temporal orphanage?" He asked, "I didn't even know Rip had a mother!"
"Everyone has a mother," Ray argued and Nate rolled his eyes.
"Well yeah, obviously. But I didn't know his was… you know… still around." He explained awkwardly.
"Ok!" Sara all but snapped, this discussion was derailing quickly and it needed to get back on track. "So Rip's mom has her hands full and we can't leave the baby here due to risk of altering the timeline. We can't keep her. What options are we left with?"
Looking around the circle of them gathered around the main computer of the bridge, it was clear that nobody really had any idea.
"What about leaving her at an orphanage somewhere else in history?" Ray suggested and Sara looked at him, her questioning gaze prompting him to explain further. "I mean you're right, leaving her somewhere else in her own time could cause a lot of problems. But what if we leave her in another time?" He asked and Sara considered the idea for a moment.
"Gideon?" She asked, "What do you think?"
"Dr. Palmer's theory could work, however it would be best to first review the current timeline and determine where Katherine's presence will have the minimal amount of impact. I can begin doing that now if you like Captain." The AI replied and Sara nodded.
"Nate and I will help," she promised the computer,
"Me?" Nate asked and again Sara nodded, "You're a historian, if anyone on this ship can help figure out the best time and place to leave a baby, it's you." She explained before turning to Mick. "Can you go let Amaya know that we have some semblance of a plan?"
Mick nodded at her request and headed off the bridge and towards the barracks, bracing himself for the loud crying he was about to walk into.
Yet it never came.
Instead, as he drew closer he to Amaya's room he heard the sound of a sweet voice singing softly.
"And if that mocking bird won't sing, mama's gonna get you a diamond ring. And if that diamond ring turns brass, mama's gonna get you a looking glass."
Mick stood in the doorway for a moment, mesmerized by the sight before him. Amaya was seated on the edge of her bed, the baby lying on it's back next to her, and she was singing the lullaby as she rubbed a soothing hand along the infant's stomach. He couldn't tell if the baby was asleep or not, but it was quiet so that was a win. She noticed him, then, and stopped her singing to smile at him.
"She's asleep," she confirmed softly, "Be quiet."
Mick nodded and took one, careful, step into the room. "We're gonna drop her off in some other time, some place one extra kid running around won't make a difference. Blondie and Pretty are working on finding a place right now." He told her and she smiled before turning her gaze back to Katherine, who was still sleeping soundly.
"She's not gonna disappear Vix," Mick pointed out, seeing how intently Amaya was watching the baby, as though she could vanish at any minute.
"No," Amaya agreed, reaching over for her two pillows and placing them on either side of Katherine, gently enough that the baby was still comfortable but tightly enough so that she wouldn't be able to roll off the edge of the bed. "But she might hurt herself." She explained as she worked, all of her concentration on the pillows and making sure Katherine was undeniably safe before she finally rose, slowly, to her feet.
Once she was standing she was still focused on Katherine, worried that her make-shift barricade might not hold up for whatever reason and if she were to leave the baby would be hurt with no one around to do anything. But finally she turned her attention onto Mick, biting her lip anxiously as she did, unsure of how he would respond to what she was about to ask of him.
"Could you stay with her?" She asked and her heart practically fell from her chest when panic flashed through Mick's eyes. "Just for a few minutes," she quickly added, "I just want to go to the fabrication room for some diapers, in case she needs to be changed before we find a place to leave her, and then just to let Sara know that she's sleeping."
Even after she promised that it wouldn't be long, only for a few short minutes in which he simply had to stand here and look at the baby, Amaya still wasn't sure that Mick would agree. But he eventually cleared his throat and found his voice.
"Sure," he answered, "sure," he repeated the word, as if confirming for himself that he had in fact agreed.
"Thank you," Amaya said with a relieved smile before hurrying out of the room, "I'll be back in like five minutes, I promise."
"Take you're time, just be back before she wakes up." He said and Amaya nodded before she took off down the hall at a brisk pace, heading first for the fabrication room.
This left Mick alone in her room with only little Katherine for company. He had never really been inside of Amaya's room before, and looking around he was surprised to find it much like his own; a hodgepodge of trinkets and weapons that she had picked up from all over their travels throughout history. It was a slightly more organized mess than his room, but slightly would be the key word in that sentence. The best way to describe it would probably be controlled chaos. Sure the place was a mess, but he was willing to bet that if he moved even one tiny thing out of place she would notice immediately. A small grunting pulled him out of his thoughts, his eyes flying to look at the baby who was shifting between the pillows Amaya had laid on either side of her, and soon settled in her new position of her side. Mick smirked to himself; he knew the kid would be just fine without somebody watching over her like a hawk. Amaya was definitely going to be an overly paranoid mother when the time came.
He swore that his blood froze along with his thoughts.
He hadn't meant it like that, like Amaya having children was inevitable. But then he remembered that that is exactly what it is. Last time they checked, which wasn't all too long ago, Mari McCabe is still running around Detroit in 2017. Waverider or not, Amaya still has a destiny, a family, waiting for her in her future. He looked around the room, this time not thinking about all the knick-knacks and trinkets that covered it, but instead of what it looked like before they were there. Actually, he had never really been in here before today. He had seen the door open once or twice back when the Legends were just starting out and hunting down Savage. He knew that Kendra kept the room clean and organized, that her only belongings were a few books that barely amounted to one shelf full and not much else. He knew enough to know that it all fit in one box when she briefly moved in with Haircut. But now Kendra is gone, and sooner or later Amaya will be too, and he'll be left here.
The sound of footsteps approaching the doorway brought his attention back from his train of thought and onto the sight of Amaya hurrying back in with a small white box in her hands, presumably the diapers she had set out after.
"She's still ok?" She asked and Mick started at the question, he had still been sort of in a state of daydreaming.
"Huh? Yeah, she's fine." He answered and Amaya exhaled a sigh of relief, "She started to roll but your pillows stopped her." He added on, Amaya looking over at her barricade of Katherine as if to confirm that the baby's position was in fact different than when she left.
"Ok, maybe she will be fine on her own then." She breathed before opening her box and pulling out what looked like a white walkie-talkie. "Gideon gave me this, she called it a baby monitor. She said if I leave this one on…" She trailed off, turning on the monitor before pulling another identical one out of the box. "And do the same with this one but keep it with me, I can leave and still be able to hear her."
Mick nodded, he knew how a baby monitor worked, but he still listened as Amaya explained it, she was talking more to herself than to him anyway.
"Ok," she finished, apparently satisfied that the monitor would work just fine for watching over the baby and that she could in fact leave.
Katherine only slept for about a half an hour more, and by the time she woke up a decision was still yet to be made about where to leave her. Sure there were plenty of places in history where her presence wasn't likely to make a difference, but they weren't exactly thrilled with the idea of leaving her in the middle of the Black Plague epidemic nearly five hundred years before her original time, or Nazi Germany, so the search had been narrowed from a time that would be unaffected to a time that would be both unaffected and relatively safe for her.
In the meantime, Amaya had basically put herself in charge of the baby, which was perfectly fine by everyone else. She had Gideon replicate a bottle and some formula and fed her once she woke up, then pilfered Ray's room for some toys. She had then disappeared back into her room. Mick was wandering the ship, bored out of his mind, when he found himself back in the barracks and passing Amaya's room.
"Oh gross, gross, gross!" He could hear her exclaiming playfully, in a pitch he wasn't even aware her voice was capable of reaching, from outside the room.
Poking his head in he saw her bent over her bed; obviously changing Katherine's diaper, with a laughing smile spread across her face as she cooed at the child.
"Huh? Gross! You're so gross!" She exclaimed in the same baby-voice before she bent her face down and blew a raspberry against the exposed skin of the baby's stomach, making her giggle. Amaya repeated her action once more before moving her attention back to what Mick imagined was a crap filled diaper, if Amaya's words and the slight smell wafting from the room were anything to go by.
He watched, perplexed, as Amaya grabbed the baby's ankles between the fingers of one hand.
"Ready?" She asked the child playfully, "Here we go, up, up, up!" She cheered as she lifted Katherine's legs up and pulled the soiled diaper out from under her, before lowering her legs and setting to work on cleaning her up. "Ok, one more time." She cooed as she grabbed the baby's ankles once again and tilted her body up and slid the new diaper under her. "Good job!" She cheered and Mick smirked to himself, continuing to watch as Amaya went back to blowing raspberries against the giggling baby's skin. "You're such a good girl!" She praised between raspberries, "You're such a good girl!" She said again before giving the baby one last raspberry, making said child squeal in delight, before securing the new diaper and re-buttoning the onesie Gideon had made. She then collected Katherine into her arms. "Now, let's get rid of this." She said, easily adjusting her hold so that she held Katherine facing outwards with one arm around her middle, collecting the dirty diaper in her free hand.
Once Amaya had Katherine settled, and had collected the trash with her other hand, she turned to go to the bathroom and dump the poop covered supplies into the incinerator, when she was met with the sight of Mick Rory. At first she just stared at him, and he stared back, unsure of what to do now that he was apparently caught.
"If you were right there, you could've helped me." She quipped, mostly teasing, as she made her way closer to move past him.
But he didn't let her.
"Uh… sorry." He stuttered out, "Want some help?"
She rolled her eyes, but an amused grin crossed her face. "I doubt you want me to hand you a literal pile of diarrhea." She said and sure enough Mick scrunched his nose in disgust, not that she blamed him of course, she didn't want to be holding the dirty diaper and wipes any more than he did. "But it is getting late, and I still haven't had a chance to shower after the mission, take her for about twenty minutes?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
She still wasn't sure if Mick had been comfortable watching Katherine for five minutes earlier, so she knew that asking this of him might be a little much. But the rest of the team had all had the opportunity to clean themselves up after the mission, while she had been a little busy calming Katherine. Sure when Katherine slept earlier she had changed and rinsed herself off, but she still had soot and the smell of smoke sticking to her hair and it needed scrubbing out.
Much to her surprise, although after a moment of a panicked look, Mick reached out wordlessly for the baby and so she carefully transferred her into his grasp. Once the hand off was done and Katherine was safely against Mick's chest Amaya couldn't help but smile.
"Thanks, I promise I'll be back soon." She said and with that she headed off toward the bathroom.
Mick looked oddly at the baby once Amaya had disappeared through the door down the hall, unsure of what to do now. He had no idea what had even possessed him to take the kid in the first place. He chose to blame it on pity, on the fact that Amaya had literally spent the entire day in charge of the kid and all she was asking was enough time to clean herself up from the mission hours earlier. He looked down at the kid, who looked back up at him with curious eyes.
"Come on, let's go see what she stole from Haircut." He finally said, turning and heading back into Amaya's bedroom where she had a blanket spread out on the floor, cluttered with a ball, a few action figures, and one of those miniature Newton's Balls models.
He set Katherine down in the center of the blanket, kneeling himself down next to her, and instead of taking interest in any of the toys she continued staring at him.
"Here, look." He said, taking the Newton Balls and pinching the first one between his fingers before releasing it so that the near endless sequence began. "Ahh," he drawled enticingly when the baby seem to take interest, her little hand reaching over to grab the balls before he gently swatted it away.
"No," he scolded lightly when she looked up at him, almost betrayed. "Amaya would kill me if I let you get your fingers pinched between those things."
Of course Katherine didn't understand that, but the sight of an action figure soon took her attention and she picked it up, clumsily turning it over in her hands. Mick watched as she did this, a heavy sigh escaping his mouth.
"She's taken good care of you today," he said, partially to himself, but the baby still looked up at him. "You know, when she decided to stay she reminded us all that her granddaughter is still around in 2017, meaning that her being on the Waverider hasn't changed anything yet. She says that if she really has a destiny, then it'll happen, one way or another." He explained before sighing again, this one more sad than thoughtful. "But let's be honest kid, she isn't exactly going to meet anyone traveling through time. Sooner or later that alarm Pretty cooked up is gonna go off, and Gideon's going to tell us that Mari's been erased. That'll be the aberration, and Amaya's going to have to choose what she wants for her future." He stopped then, giving Katherine a rather pointed look as she returned her attention to the toy in her hands. "She's only known you for a day, and it's not like she knew your parents at all, but I can see it in her eyes; that woman would die if it meant keeping you safe." He said and sure Katherine had retained no interest in the one sided conversation, she didn't even understand what it was he was saying.
But that didn't matter to Mick. He was mostly thinking out loud anyway. He had thought about this before, about how the time will inevitably come when Amaya will be forced to choose between their little band of misfits and the family she is supposed to start. He hadn't really been sure before which she would choose, but it was obvious now. Once word came through that her granddaughter was actually in danger of disappearing she would demand to be taken back to 1942 without a second thought.
It was Amaya herself that pulled him from his thoughts, returning in just a little over half the time she had promised she would be gone. Her hair hung in damp, messy waves around her bare shoulders, her body clad in nothing but a light blue towel, and a smile on her face when her eyes met Katherine's.
The entire sight had Mick's mouth going dry.
"I'll uh… I'll get out of here." He said, more or less recovering his wits and rising to his feet. "She was behaved," he said on his way out.
"Ok, thank you." Amaya called after him as he left, only a little confused by his sudden eagerness to leave.
It wasn't too much later before Mick saw Amaya again, less than a half hour in fact. He had gone into the library to check on Sara and Nate's progress and just never left, settling himself in a chair over in the corner with a beer. Apparently Amaya had the same idea and showed up, now dressed in yoga pants and matching black tank top with her wet hair in a loose braid, with Katherine on her hip.
"I just fed her," she informed the Captain and resident historian simply. "She'll be getting tired soon. Should I put her down for the night or have you found a safe place to leave her?" She asked and the question peaked Mick's interest, he had been starting to wonder if she was going to ask about keeping Katherine.
"Actually we've found two," Sara replied, "We were weighing the benefits and drawbacks between each of them but they're both coming out fine. The first is Bedford New Hampshire in 1986, the second is York England in 2022."
"We were leaning towards New Hampshire because 1986 is in our past, we both know that nothing terrible will happen to the east coast." Nate explained,
"But Gideon assured us that nothing awful is going to happen in or around York, at least nothing's supposed to." Sara interjected.
"It's also the thing of small town versus big city," Nate butted in, "Bedford is basically a map dot, if that, while York is huge. We're trying to figure out which would be the best for both Katherine and the timeline."
"I'd rather leave her in New Hampshire," Amaya said, "I trust Gideon, but you also know for sure that 1986 is safe. The small town means it's less likely that something bad will happen to her." She reasoned and Sara nodded, Amaya had taken care of their little guest all day, so it was only fair that she got a final say in what to do with the child.
"We'll leave her at the police station," she stated and Amaya nodded acceptingly, so Sara tapped her comm. "Everyone to the bridge, we're making a quick jump to drop off Katherine."
"What should I do with her?" Amaya asked once Sara had called the others, they were still parked and cloaked outside of London, and hadn't yet time jumped with the baby.
"Buckle down and pray, time jumping with a kid ain't fun, trust me." Mick said from his seat.
Sara briefly looked over her shoulder at him, before turning back to Amaya, who had an inquisitive expression on her face. "We've time jumped with babies before," she admitted, "But the Time Masters who built the Waverider never planned on that happening, so there's no special seat or anything for them. The best thing you can do is curl yourself up in a corner and hold onto her, tightly." Amaya gulped nervously but nodded. She had never jumped outside of her flight seat before, but she had been right there when Nate knocked himself and Ray out the cargo door and that had been scary enough.
"I'll do it," Mick's rumbling voice cut through her thoughts as everyone in the room turned to look at him, Nate especially surprised. "I did it last time, three times, I'll be fine." He reasoned and Sara nodded, the two of them had retained their memories of their time on the Waverider as teenagers, although Rip is still under the impression that their younger selves actually took the amnesia pills once they were returned to the timeline. She remembers the jumps they made that day, the two of them in the cargo hold, Mick holding tight to baby Snart while she had baby Stein and baby Jax.
Amaya, whether it was her own trust in Mick or Sara's, or both, was unclear but she still handed Katherine over to the arsonist. The baby went to him without a problem, as he had watched her enough today that she could recognize him as safe.
Amaya's eyes lingered on his for a moment, a silent thank you, before the sound of the others passing by on their way to the bridge came from outside the library doors and it was time for them both to go prepare for take off.
They dropped Katherine at the doorstep of the police station as planned. They knocked quickly on the front door just to be sure that someone would come soon, but disappeared before anyone did. They left a simple note saying that her name was Katherine and that both of her parents are gone, but didn't elaborate. Sara brought them into the temporal zone for the night, and as he was walking back to his own room Mick passed Amaya's open door. For the first time today he didn't notice the door was open before he reached it. There were no sounds of laughter or singing, just quiet. Peering in he saw Amaya gathering up the things she had taken from Ray, probably about to give them back.
"You gonna miss her?" He asked, leaning himself against the doorway and she looked up before smiling to herself.
"Of course I will," she admitted, "She's a sweet kid. But a time ship is no place for a baby, and I'm not ready to quit the Legends in order to raise one." She mocked as if she knew what he had been wondering all day, and so with an assuring smile she walked by him and made her way for Haircut's room.
Mick watched her go with a small but sad smile on his face. She may not be ready today, but someday she will be. Sooner or later her destiny will call her, and he knows she'll answer the call.
What he couldn't know is that she won't be the only one.