So I promised an alt. ending to Voices Carry literally in July. Whoops. Anyway, if you're new, you should probably read the original fic (can't link it bc sorta sucks but you can find it on my page somewhere) bc this won't make a whole lot of sense if you don't but it's your life.
"Avery's dancing with someone and it isn't me?" Leonard heard someone exclaim.
He looked over in time to see Avery run over and jump into Felicity's arms, letting her swing her around in circles.
Leonard felt someone grab his hand.
"You wanna dance, Leonard?" Sara asked, a smirk on her lips.
Leonard tried to smirk back, but found that he couldn't, his body paralyzed, his eyes seeing nothing but darkness.
You wanna dance, Leonard?
The words reverberated in his mind until they took on a new voice.
Or…the same voice, but different somehow. Maybe younger? Older? He couldn't tell. Different definitely. More of a joking tone, as if Sara — yes, he was sure it was still Sara — knew he would say no.
No thanks, I'll watch.
His voice now, although he hadn't spoken them.
Suit yourself.
Sara again, indifference in her voice, like she was talking to a stranger.
The world around Leonard was still dark, or maybe he just couldn't open his eyes.
Dollar beers.
Mick's words, rough and jagged, floated into his mind like a bubble.
One. Two. Three. Four.
Avery, her voice high and sweet.
Gotta love the seventies.
Mick again.
The seventies?
An image flickered into Leonard's mind of a bar he had never been in, an old jukebox in the corner, a deer head mounted on a tall post, red, knotty wood making up almost every surface, and Sara standing in front of him.
Her hair was longer than he remembered, and she was wearing some sort of costume? Something he'd never seen before: white and leather with a halter neck.
Suit yourself.
Sara handed him her beer, the bottle cold in the palm of his hand.
Recognition flooded his mind as the White Canary walked into the empty space of the bar in St. Roch, Louisiana, 1975.
He and Sara and Mick had all just joined the time traveling mission to save time from Vandal Savage. They were benched from the first mission, so they crashed a bar.
They weren't benched from other missions though. He remembered breaking into Savage's house with Mick and…tall…painfully optimistic…Ray. He remembers the rest of the team now, Kendra, Jax, Stein, and Rip, their captain. He remembers breaking Mick and Ray out of a Russian gulag. He remembers nearly freezing in the cargo hold of the Waverider, Mick's betrayal and return, pointing the cold gun at Sara. He remembers holding down the failsafe at the Oculus Wellspring.
Me and you.
You wanna steal a kiss from me, Leonard.
Leonard.
"Leonard!"
The voice was louder now, solid, and certainly not Sara's.
Snart!"
It's lower, a man's, but not as low as Mick's, somewhere in the middle.
His eyes opened and he could see again, for the first time since the wedding.
His wedding.
His vision focused and he recognized the med bay on the Waverider, clean and painfully bright.
Ray Palmer stood beside the bed.
"You're awake!" he exclaimed. His face was as bright as ever, but there was still concern in his eyes.
"Thanks for letting me know," he grumbled, pushing himself into a more upright position.
There was a beat of silence.
"What happened?" he finally asked.
He hadn't wanted to say it, to admit to Raymond and himself the position of vulnerability he was in.
"We're not really sure," Ray answered, looking intently at the screen displaying his vitals, "You, y'know, died when the Oculus blew up, or at least that's what we thought. A year and half went by without any sign of you and then all of a sudden Gideon started freaking out and then we found you passed out in an alley behind some bar in Louisiana, 1975."
Another second of silence.
"What happened?"
This time it was Ray who asked.
"I mean," he continued, "did you get sucked into the timeline? Because that's what I think happened."
"No, I don't think so."
"Or maybe destroying the Oculus reset your timeline or, what do you think?" Ray paused when he realized Leonard wasn't responding, "Hey, are you okay?"
"I need to talk to Rip," he said, "Alone."
Confusion etched itself across Ray's face, but he hid it surprisingly well.
Leonard wasn't surprised by his concern. The more he came to remember who he was here, on the Waverider, the more he recognized that genuinely seeking out their captain was extremely out of character.
"Rip is," Ray hesitated, "not here."
"Not here?"
"Look, I know it's been a while, but—"
"Who's Captain, then?"
"Sara."
Leonard felt a pang in her heart at her name.
"Oh."
"But I've been working pretty closely with Gideon," Ray said hurriedly, "I can try to help."
Leonard said nothing, gesturing for him to continue.
"I assume you want to figure out what happened. You are aware of how you…" he paused, "…left us — I guess died isn't really the best word now."
"The Oculus."
"Right. We thought the Oculus explosion killed you. Gideon never found any traces of your survival, so we just assumed you had died. We did have some other theories, so we set up an alert if you ever turned up anywhere. Eighteen months later, here we are."
"I just, what, showed up?"
"Seems like it," Ray replied, "in St. Roch, 1975 at the bar you went to with Mick and Sara."
Leonard let his eyes close at the sound of Sara's name.
"What?" Ray asked. Leonard opened his eyes and shook his head.
"Where did I come from?" he asked, hearing anger in his voice he hadn't realized he was feeling.
"We don't know — not yet anyway. I'm almost afraid to ask, but," Ray hesitated, "where were you?"
Leonard exhaled heavily.
"I was—" he stopped for a moment, thinking, "I think I was on…not this Earth. Another one. I was me, but things about me were different."
"Different how?"
"I was still Captain Cold," he answered, "but I hid who I really was. My sister wasn't Golden Glider, Mick wasn't Heatwave — Mick wasn't around at all really."
"And you didn't work on the — a — Waverider, or with anybody on this team?"
"No— well, not entirely."
"What do you mean?"
"I knew — know — Sara."
"Oh," he said, his eyebrows raised, "And you were with her?"
"Yeah, you could say that," he replied, feeling a smirk creep onto his lips.
"So let me get this straight," Ray said, starting a slow pace around the med bay, "You have all your memories from your life on this other earth, from childhood to today. And you have all your memories from your life on this Earth?"
"As of ten minutes ago, yes."
Ray nodded slowly.
"Okay, well, the first thing we did when we got you to the med bay was run a test to see if you are really you — our Earth's you."
"And?"
"You are the Earth-One Leonard Snart. The cells in your right hand are younger than the rest of your body, from when you had to regrow it two years ago. According to Gideon, that event is unique to Earth-One Leonard Snart.
"Lucky me."
"So now we have to ask, how did you end up on another Earth?" Ray continued, "And which Earth was it?"
"You think that's what happened?"
"Well, my other thought is that you were in a dream world, you know, inside your head, but given how visceral your knowledge of this other life is, I don't really think that's the case," Ray replied. His face clouded over in thought, "Or maybe the aliens."
"What?"
Rip shook his head.
"Never mind. Probably not. Anyway, we can run a search to figure out what Earth you ended up on, but we'll need to go to the bridge. Gideon, is Snart okay to make it there alright?"
"Yes, Mr. Palmer, I believe Mr. Snart has recovered enough to not need the services of the medical bay."
"Perfect."
Ray took a step back and waited while Leonard got to his feet.
"So," he said as they walked down the corridor leading to the bridge, "What I think happened is when you destroyed the Oculus, the explosion pulled you into the time stream of another Earth, and you became an anachronism."
"What's an anachronism?" Leonard asked drily.
"Man, have you missed a lot," Ray sighed, "Anachronisms are changes to the timeline that were caused by the ripple effect of other changes. Stein caused an anachronism when he gave his younger self some advice and now he has a daughter, Lily. He has memories of both lives, with and without Lily, same as you with the two Earths."
"So…" Leonard said, trailing off when he couldn't find a way to continue.
"I can find the Earth you were on if you want," Ray suggested.
After a moment of thought, Leonard nodded.
"Okay, so I just need a detail that could be unique to that particular Earth, like how having to regenerate your hand is unique to you," he explained. By that time, they had reached the bridge, stopping in front of the holo table, "Do you have anything in mind?"
Leonard thought for a while, considering the two worlds he had lived in.
"Avery Lance."
Ray met his eyes for a moment, but didn't say anything.
"Gideon," he called into the air, "Run a multiverse search for Avery Lance in the year 2018.
There was silence for a moment.
"I found records of an Avery Felicity Lance, age four, currently living in Central City on Earth sixty-three."
Leonard wasn't listening. A picture had appeared on the holo table — Avery, in a floral print skirt and pink blouse, sandals on her feet, a white bow in her wild curls, and backpack straps over her shoulders. Sara was crouched down at her side and they were both smiling into the camera.
Leonard knew this picture well. It was taken on Avery's first day of preschool, and sat in a frame on a shelf in the living room.
He thought of Sara and Avery. The new weight of the wedding band on his ring finger had been a constant thought in his mind. He could only hope the mysterious ways of time were protecting them from what was going on, and he was trying to avoid altogether the thought of never returning to them.
"Snart," Ray said, his voice softer than it had been thus far, "This is Earth-63-Sara's daughter?" Leonard nodded, "And yours?"
"Not…biologically," Leonard answered, not taking his eyes off the picture, "but she's…" he trailed off, trying to find the right words, "I love her like she's mine."
"And Sara wasn't just a business partner."
"No," he said, his voice soft, "Our wedding was today."
He wasn't sure if he wanted to share that particular part of his life, but at this point it didn't seem to matter.
"Mazel Tov," Ray replied somewhat uncomfortably.
"Thanks," Leonard replied, expressionless.
"Well, Gideon and I are going to figure out how this happened. In the meantime, if you'd like to," he paused, "reacquaint yourself with the ship and the team, you can."
Leonard nodded curtly, turned, and headed for the metal doorway.
He'd be lying if he said his memory of the Waverider and its maze of corridors was perfect, but it was starting to come back to him. He made it back to his quarters relatively easily.
The doors opened automatically as he approached, and once inside, he was surrounded by his old belongings, although he wasn't sure if old was the right word.
There was a frame on a black desk holding a faded photograph of Lisa at her high school graduation. On Earth-63, Leonard had a similar picture from Lisa's college graduation, but he also knew on this Earth, Earth-1 Lisa hadn't gone to college, and neither did he.
It was strange, when he first woke up, he had considered what was apparently Earth-63 to be his real Earth, but the longer he was here and the more he remembered, it was beginning to even out. He had lived both, and had memories of both lives. Both of them were real.
Leonard wasn't sure if that was a reassuring thought. He wondered if he was stuck on this Earth now — although again, stuck didn't seem like the right word, because there was a part of him that felt relieved to be back. Of course, there was an equally strong part of him that desperately wanted to return to Earth-63. He just wasn't sure if that was a possibility.
He turned when he heard the sound of knocking on the metal door.
"Hey," Jax said, taking a step into the room, "How're you doing?"
"Fine," he replied.
"I, uh, sort of accidentally overheard you and Ray on the bridge," he said, "Look, I'm really sorry, man. I really hope we find a way to get you back to Earth-63 and your family, if that's what you want."
"So do I," he replied.
"Have you said hi to the rest of the team yet?"
"No."
"Well, you should. We missed you around here."
Jax nodded once, then turned and left the room.
Leonard thought about what Jax had said and found he did want to talk to the team. He found he was beginning to remember the people he worked with for the five months he was on the Waverider before the Oculus. He remembered how much he cared about them. He realized that this was somewhat uncharacteristic for this version of him, but so was self-sacrifice to save all of history, at least it would have been when the mission began. The mission had changed him. He probably wouldn't have let himself acknowledge that before, but at this point, it seemed sort of futile. He'd changed a lot on Earth-63 as well. It was a good thing. Barry — Earth-63 Barry — had said something only a few hours early which led him to realize that past versions of himself could never have been capable of being loved by Sara Lance. He'd continued to become a better person because of her. perhaps that's why he drifted to Sara on this Earth as well.
When he'd first woken up, thoughts of returning to Earth-63 and Sara and Avery had nearly consumed him. Those thoughts certainly weren't gone, but he couldn't deny there was a part of him that wanted to stay here, on Earth-1. That thought left a somewhat bitter taste in his mouth. He had a wife and a daughter on Earth-63, yet he still felt a desire to stay here. He had unfinished business here, both on this Earth and on the Waverider.
He couldn't help but think of Lisa. Did the team tell her what happened after the Oculus? Did she think he was dead? Leonard hadn't bothered to tell her about the Waverider and the mission because he figured they'd return mere minutes after they left.
And what about Mick. He didn't know why it had taken so long to think of his old friend, his partner, except perhaps that they hadn't been as close on Earth-63 as they were here.
Either way, Leonard knew the last time they had interacted was when he had knocked Mick out with the cold gun to take his place at the Oculus.
He remember what Jax had said about visiting the team. Leonard sighed and headed for the door.
He remembered where Mick's room was. He hadn't gone there particularly often when he was on the ship. For as long and as well as they knew each other, they weren't particularly close. He actually thought he might have spent more time in Sara's room than Mick's.
Predicting the future, he thought, then pushed the idea out of his mind, realizing as he did that he wasn't sure which Sara he'd been thinking of.
He rounded a corner and nearly collided with someone. He took a step back and saw familiar light brown hair — the same color as Avery's — messy in a way that seemed like it was on purpose. He was slightly more built than on Earth-63, but he was dressed the same: t-shirt and loose-fitting jeans.
"Hey," he said, holding out a hand, "Nate Heywood. You must be Captain Cold. Ray talks about you all the time."
Leonard stood still, not really sure how to react. He had never considered the potential overlaps between the two Earths he knew, overlaps he couldn't foresee.
Nate Heywood hadn't been on the team when Leonard was last a part of it, yet here he was. He wondered what else was different.
Had anybody else joined the team? He knew Rip was gone, although he didn't know why — maybe after the Oculus they defeated Savage and saved Miranda and Jonas. Maybe he was with his family.
Either way, Sara was captain of the Waverider now, a fact he hadn't gotten to process yet.
What about at home? Is Lisa dating Cisco on this Earth? Is she working on the Flash's team? What about Malcolm Merlyn? As memories of Earth-1 returned to him, he remembered hearing about earthquakes in a district in Star City, attributed to Malcolm Merlyn. What was he doing now? Still in jail, hopefully.
"Hey," Nate said, slowing lowering his hand, "You alright?"
"Peachy," he replied, brushing past him towards Mick's room.
It was a disaster zone.
Mick had always been the messiest person Leonard had ever known. This wasn't particularly out of the norm when they were teenagers, but apparently he'd never grown out of it. At least something was consistent between the two Earths.
Mick was sitting on the edge of the bed, tinkering with the heat gun. He looked up.
"Mick," he said, leaning against the doorframe.
"Heard you were back from the dead," he replied, glancing up at him before looking back to his gun.
"Seems like it."
"Haircut told me you were on a different Earth."
"Seems like it."
"He said you married Sara on that Earth," Mick eventually said, "Nice job."
"Thanks."
Mick didn't respond immediately, long enough for Leonard to think he should say more. He felt a strange need to apologize to him, but he wasn't sure why.
"After you died, I told Sara that I wish I'd 'a done more to push you together."
"You knew?"
" 'course I know. The only ones on this tin can who didn't know were you and Blondie. Glad to hear it worked out on one Earth, though."
Leonard didn't respond.
"Did you know me on this other Earth?" Mick asked.
"I did," he replied, "We weren't as close though, not in the last five or six years — remember Freeport Warehouse."
"Yeah," Mick said with one short laugh, "Almost didn't get outta that one."
"Well, we didn't. Got three years each — except yours turned into seven because you kept pissing off the guards. After that we didn't really work together much anymore."
"Did you invite me to the wedding?"
"I did."
"Did I come?"
"Yeah. You did."
Neither spoke for a moment, Mick focusing on the heat gun, Leonard's eyes roaming around the room that was becoming more familiar with each passing minute.
"You shouldn't 'a done it," Mick said.
"Done what?"
"Knocked me out. Traded places with me."
"Doesn't seem like it really mattered in the end." Leonard replied.
"Still. Shouldn't 'a done it. Not for me. Didn't deserve it."
Leonard furrowed his eyebrows. Apparently he wasn't the only rogue who had changed during their time on the Waverider.
"Stein, Jax, and the boy scout are working on a way to get to your other Earth," Mick continued, seeming unbothered by not getting a response to his previous statement. "You gonna go?"
Leonard didn't answer immediately, even thought he knew what he was going to say. Mick's question had made him realize that he was going to need to make a decision eventually, and the longer he stayed here, the harder that became.
"I really don't know."
—
Leonard left Mick's room only a couple minutes later. Mick was a man of few words, and Leonard could sense when the conversation would go no further.
He headed back towards his room the way he came. He was nearing the corridor leading to the bridge when a familiar figure walked out of it and turned his way.
Leonard was standing face to face with Sara Lance. Sara's expression was one he'd never seen before — not on this version nor her Earth-63 counterpart — holding both anger and sadness. He felt his lips involuntarily part, his eyes softening.
Leonard saw something change on Sara's face, and before he knew what was happening, she surged towards him and they were kissing.
Kissing this Earth's Sara was not like kissing the Sara on Earth-63. That Sara was gentler, not hardened by years on a remote island inhabited by training assassins. This Sara's strength was apparent in her touch, one hand on his cheek, the other on the back of his neck.
Everything came flooding back to him, the smirks exchanged over the holo table during team meetings, fighting back to back against Savage's army — not even fighting with Mick was as effortless. Everything about this Sara he'd ever thought and felt came back.
He pulled away. He met her eyes, seeing the sadness had returned.
"Sara—"
She shook her head, opening her mouth to speak and closing it again before she brushed past him.
Leonard watched her go for a moment before he sighed and continued towards his room.
—
He didn't leave his quarters at all after his interaction with Sara. A couple hours later, Ray poked his head into the room.
"Hey," he said, "So I've been talking to Gideon and we think we figured out a way to get you back to Earth-63— if you wanted."
Leonard didn't say anything so he continued.
"And we think we figured out a way to sort of reset the timeline there, so if you wanted to stay here, it'll be like nothing ever happened. Nobody gets hurt. I could explain how it all works if you wanted—"
"No thanks."
"Yeah, sorta figured," he shrugged, "Anyway, I know it's a tough decision so take your time."
He backed out of the room and the metal doors slid closed.
A few minutes later, he heard another voice in the doorway.
"Hey."
Leonard turned his head to see Sara in the spot Ray had just left.
"I'm sorry about—" she hesitated, "I'm sorry about before. I…your expression when…I'm just sorry. Ray told me about Earth-63, how you're married to…to that version of me, and about your daughter."
He nodded slowly.
"What's her name?" Sara asked, moving farther into the room.
"Avery Felicity Lance," he replied, unable to conceal the small smile that appeared on his face.
"Felicity?"
"Yeah, I guess you're closer with her on my — that — Earth than here."
"The timelines are different?"
He nodded.
"How?" she asked, "How did I end up — not what I am today."
"You didn't go on the boat."
Sara went still. Leonard knew she had always wondered who she would be had she not gone on the Queen's Gambit with Oliver. Maybe this was it. Maybe she would finish college, become a cop, have a daughter.
She wouldn't meet him though. He knew that much. His past on Earth-63 was bad, but his past here was much, much worse. Putting aside other discrepancies that would stand between them meeting (for one, he was pretty sure he'd never even seen the apartment building he and his sister had lived in on Earth-63, the one where he and Sara had met), there was no possibility Sara would give him the time of day. None.
"What else?" she asked.
"Your parents are still divorced and your mom still lives in Central City, but your dad is married to Felicity's mother."
"Really?" Sara interjected, "I don't think they even know each other here."
"Tommy's alive," he continued. She nodded, "He's married to your sister."
He saw her eyes widen slightly, her lips parting.
"What?"
"My sister died," she told him, "sometime during the first few months of the mission. I found out after you…after the Oculus."
"I'm sorry."
Sara nodded, then shook her head, straightening.
"What else?" she asked, "So I didn't go on the boat. What'd I end up doing?"
"You're a cop," he replied.
"Really?"
He nodded, "Actually, a homicide detective. you led the case to catch Captain Cold."
"Is that how we met?" she asked, laughing.
"No," he smirked.
"Why do I feel like that's a long story," she replied. He nodded, the smirk becoming a smile before he could stop it. "What about my — her — daughter? How old is she?"
"Four," he replied, "Turns five in March."
"Can I see her?"
Leonard pulled his phone out of his back pocket and opened a folder of photos he had of Avery. He knew there were a few photos of Sara — Earth-63 Sara — in there as well.
He watched as Sara looked at the pictures.
"She's cute," she told him, smiling as she swiped through the blurry selfies Avery had taken in the few seconds before Leonard noticed, "Baby pictures?"
Sara tipped the phone towards him so he could see a photo of Avery when she was a little over a year old, standing on chunky little legs in Dinah Lance's kitchen. Her light brown curls were shorter, but just as wild.
He nodded.
"Huh," she said, "I just never saw you as the kind of dad who had baby pictures on his phone."
He didn't. Well, not really. He had pictures of Avery now, mostly ones she'd taken herself. The only baby pictures he had of her were sent by Sara — Avery had needed them for a homework assignment.
"Do you know who her…" Sara hesitated, "biological dad is?"
"Yeah," he replied. He sensed her next question and shook his head, "Doesn't matter who."
Sara nodded. A moment later, her face clouded over.
"Oh God, tell me it's not Oliver."
"It's not Oliver," he chuckled.
Sara stilled. Leonard remembered that the version of him Sara remembered rarely ever laughed or smiled (besides out of sarcasm, anyway).
He watched her sigh.
"You're not staying," she said. It wasn't a question. She already knew the answer.
"No."
"Because of them."
"I love them," he said, "more than I thought I ever could."
She exhaled.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"No, I get it," she shook her head. She waited a beat and then continued, "You should know — and I'm not saying this to convince you to stay, I swear — it really sucks not having you on the Waverider. It does. There's too many Ray's on board now. I wish you were here to balance things out."
He chuckled.
"You still have Mick," he replied.
"Mick's not as good at pushing buttons as you were," she shook her head, smiling slightly, "Team hasn't been the same without you."
He didn't respond. There wasn't anything he could say.
Sara spoke again.
"I wish I hadn't left."
"The Oculus?"
"No — well, yes — but I mean my room. When you came to talk to me."
"Oh."
"I always wondered…" she trailed off momentarily, "if I hadn't left and we had kept talking and…stuff, would you still have taken Mick's place."
Leonard didn't answer immediately. His conversation with Sara then had gone exactly how he thought it would, but if it hadn't, if it had gone differently, maybe he would have made a different choice.
"I don't know," he replied honestly, "But you should know I meant what I said about thinking about you. I think that's why I did what I did on the bridge, pulling the cold gun on you."
"You know, I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to justify that kind of thing," Sara said, her lips turning up in a smirk.
"I'm not," he replied, "I was a jerk —"
"Guilty," Sara cut in, still smirking, and Leonard felt a pang in his chest.
"I was a jerk," he repeated, "but I think I was trying to convince myself that I didn't care as much as I did."
"And did it work."
"No."
"Captain," Gideon's voice rang out across the room, "Ray would like you to know that the tech to send Mr. Snart back to Earth-63 is ready."
"Okay," Sara replied. She met Leonard's eyes, "Ready?"
"Yeah."
—
"You're sure this is what you want?" Ray asked when he and Sara were on the bridge. Leonard said nothing but raised an eyebrow at him, "Okay, well, you should know Gideon wants to erase your memories — you know, of this Earth."
"Why?"
"After we bring you to Earth-63, we can't come back, and there's no way for you to get in contact with us. That's not gonna be a problem if you don't remember any of us and all of this. Besides, I can't imagine wanting to have memories of two lives in a world where only one happened."
"Fine."
"Alright, so we figured out a way to sort of…beam you into Earth-63 in the exact place you left, and we'll erase your memory then."
"Okay."
"Okay," Ray repeated. He took on a look that conveyed a taxing internal debate before stepping forward and hugging Leonard.
"That was unnecessary," he grumbled when Ray relinquished him.
Mick then moved forwards.
"I'm glad you're not dead," he told him as Leonard shook his hand.
"Me too. Tell my sister what happened."
" 'Course."
Jax and Stein both shook Leonard's hand and then stepped back.
Sara started moving towards him, arms crossed in front of her.
"We're gonna miss you around here," she said. She stopped when she was just in front of him and turned to Ray. "He's not gonna remember anything?"
"Not anything, just nothing from this Earth. Gideon said tha—"
"Perfect," Sara breathed, grabbing Leonard's face and capturing his lips with hers. Leonard gave into the kiss that time, snaking his arms around her waist.
"What the hell?" he heard a voice that sounded suspiciously like Nate whisper.
Sara's hands trailed from his face to around his neck as she deepened the kiss. Leonard remembered the last time he had kissed Sara, when they were at the Oculus. He remembered when she pulled away, their eyes meeting. He remembered trying to memorize every inch of her in the seconds before she left.
Sara pulled away, untwining her arms from around his shoulders. Leonard didn't move his hands from her waist. He met her eyes.
"I'm sorry," he said, his voice low. She shook her head.
"Don't," she replied just as softly, "It's okay."
Finally, he let his arms drop and Sara stepped away from him.
"Ready?" Ray asked again.
"Yeah," Leonard nodded.
Ray lifted his arm. In his hand was a small white gun with a wide, box-shaped barrel that looked not unlike the one Rip Hunter had used on him when he was first pulling together the team.
Leonard's eyes flicked to Sara. Her expression was the same as when they were at the Oculus.
She gave him a small, almost imperceptible nod. He heard the click of the trigger, and as he turned back to Ray, a flash of white light completely consumed his vision.
—
"Hey," Sara said, her hand moving to his arm. He met her eyes, seeing concern written on her face, "You okay? It looked like we lost you for a second."
Leonard processed again where he was, saw the twinkling lights hung around them, illuminated by the steadily setting sun, heard the last few notes of Al Green's Let's Stay Together beginning to fade. He looked back to Sara, saw her in her wedding dress, felt the weight of her hand on his arm, and smiled.
"Just realizing how lucky I am," he said.
"Oh really?" Sara asked, a smirk on her lips and eyebrows raised, "And why is that?"
"I dunno," he replied, his arms moving to around her waist, "maybe because you're beautiful and smart and strong."
"I'm also your wife," Sara replied, the smirk turning into a smile as she looped her arms around his neck.
"You're proving my argument," he murmured against her lips before Sara kissed him.
—
"Would you like me to land, Captain," Gideon asked.
Sara didn't answer immediately, looking out the jumpship window at the couple on the dance floor.
"Uh…no, Gideon," she replied, "We're leaving in a second."
She continued looking at the scene below her. She'd never seen a more beautiful wedding before, with the lights and lanterns hanging from the rustic wooden frame lighting up the shiny black and white dance floor and the tables and chairs filled with people. She didn't consider herself to be a wedding person — she hadn't really even thought about the possibility of having one since before the Gambit. Maybe this version of her was.
She saw her father dancing with a blonde woman she had to assume was Felicity's mother — Leonard really wasn't kidding about that, she supposed.
Her eyes landed on Laurel then, and she felt tears pricking her eyes. She was dancing with Tommy a couple yards away from Leonard and this Earth's Sara. She was laughing at something Tommy had said as they swayed back and forth to the music.
"Gideon, is there any way I can hear what's going on down there — without them noticing, obviously."
There was a click and then the first chorus of The Way You Look Tonight started playing in the jumpship.
"Daddy!" Sara heard a high voice call. She watched a little girl run across the dance floor and jump into Leonard's arms.
Even from a distance, Avery Lance looked just like her picture, with wild brown curls and shining eyes.
"Mama," Avery said, "watch this!"
She squirmed out of Leonard's arms and took his hand, twirling underneath it.
Sara watched her Earth-63 counterpart smile.
"Wow, Avie," she said heard her say, "That's so cool."
Sara sat down in the pilot's chair.
He made the right choice, she decided as she watched Leonard with this Earth's Sara, Avery hanging onto his arm, chattering indistinguishably about something in the little girl manner she'd never been able to understand. He'd never looked that happy before, a genuine smile on his face as he looked to his wife.
"Gideon," Sara said, "I'm ready to go."
The jumpship jolted into motion, and as Avery's little voice was carried into the wind with the music, Sara left Leonard for the last time.