AUTHOR'S NOTE: This started as a silly thought I had after writing "Worth the Wait," based on nordicgnome's assertion that Older!Len is "pretty damned hot." (I happen to agree. WM has only gotten better as he's gotten older, and I think that will continue!)

As I wrote the story, though, it became much less silly. Thanks to Jael/stillwordgirl for once again helping me through a block on this, and to dragonydreams for some valuable insight.

If you have not read "Worth The Wait," you should read it first.

DISCLAIMER: DC Entertainment owns these characters and will do with them whatever they want. This is just one of the things I want, and I make no money from this.

He dipped his head and kissed her. Softly at first, his thumb gently caressing her cheek. Then he changed the angle, moving his hand to cradle her head as he deepened the kiss, his left arm tightening around her as his tongue gently swept into her mouth.

Her senses were exploding as he went from twining his tongue with hers, to nibbling her lower lip, to just brushing his mouth against hers before increasing the pressure once again. The contact was making her weak in the knees, but she felt like she could do this forever…

"If you'd kissed me like that before, I'd never have let you go."

Sometimes the memory of that kiss was the only thing that got Sara through a day.

Sometimes it kept her up at night, heating her blood with desire and driving her to find solitary release.

Sometimes it led her to liquor and tears shed on Mick's shoulder. Especially on those days when she feared they would never find him again, despite his future self's reassurances to the contrary.

"Don't give up on me, Sara. Don't give up on him. Find him, and you'll find someone who loves you as much as I do."

She didn't give up, through weeks and months of waiting, pursuing possibilities, and righting more than a few wrongs along the way. And when they did finally find him again, she found exactly what she'd been promised: Someone who loved her, and looked at her with the same intensity as that older version of himself had on the day they killed Savage.

But he hadn't yet become the confident man who'd made her knees weak with a kiss before returning to his… their… future.

This was the man who had accepted her desperate kiss at the Oculus, and his kisses to her were just as desperate, as if he feared he'd never kiss her again. That first night, he made love to her fiercely, possessively. She'd expected that and matched his fierceness. But she hadn't expected him to wake up later with a heartbreaking shout, drenched in a cold sweat, tears running down his face.

"You died," he told her brokenly as she held him and rocked him soothingly.

The second night, he rose from their bed and stalked down the corridor with one of Sara's knives in hand. It took Rip, Jax and Ray working together to stop him from attacking Mick, all the while screaming, "You killed her, Chronos! You killed Lisa!"

The next morning, Rip brought them back to Central City, so he could see his sister again, alive and well and overjoyed to see that he too was alive.

But no one could say he was really well.

The third night, Sara woke alone again and found him down in the lower hold, curled into a fetal position on the floor and weeping.

The fourth night, neither of them slept, both afraid of what might happen if they did.

The fifth night, Mick joined them in bed, helping Sara to hold Len in his sleep. There was no sex to it, just loving protectiveness. Sara would lay with her heart pressed up to Len's, and Mick would spoon behind his old friend, so that when Len woke in the middle of the night (and he did, many times), all he felt was love and warmth and comfort, allowing him to descend into slumber once again.

But all three agreed they needed to find a solution, and gathered the team for a consultation with Gideon.

"It is a form of post-traumatic stress disorder," the AI told them. "While trapped in the time stream, Mr. Snart was able to see many alternate possibilities, including timelines where you died, Miss Lance, and where Mr. Rory remained as Chronos. Those images have remained in his subconscious."

"So what can we do?" Sara asked.

"There are drugs which can assist," Gideon began.

Len cut the AI off firmly. "Not goin' there."

"My dream-monitoring functionality also includes the ability to direct dreaming," Gideon went on. "With your permission, Mr. Snart, I can help to divert the nightmares."

Len nodded his assent, but Stein looked concerned. "Gideon, this is not a long term solution," he said. "If those images are in his subconscious…"

"No," the AI agreed. "It is only part of the plan. All of you must help as well."

Rip would have objected to the next part of Gideon's plan, if Len's future self hadn't already told them what would happen. From each of his teammates, Len heard the story of his future self's appearance, each from their own point of view.

It was just what the older Leonard Snart had told them would happen, so Rip held his tongue about revealing the future.

They also told Len everything that had happened to them in the months they'd lived while he was trapped in a place where time didn't move in a linear fashion. Jax's stories turned out to be the most animated, as he acted out the scenes for Len. Complete with sound effects.

The shared stories helped to overwrite his memories of the alternate timelines, and helped him sift his own reality from all the ones he'd seen.

Stein and Ray explained the science behind what had happened to him. And for a wonder, they managed to do it in English, further reassuring him that the things he had seen were not real.

At least, not for their version of Leonard Snart.

Through all of it, Len listened, asked questions, and never once uttered an insult or a snarky comment, even at the more ridiculous of Jax's reenactments. Sara would have worried, but she could see the intense concentration in his eyes, the wheels turning in his mind as he tried to assimilate all he was being told.

After a week of Gideon's monitoring, the team's talk therapy, and Mick's close company, Len's kisses started to become less tinged with despair. And when he held her tightly, it was out of passion rather than the fear that she would be ripped away from him. She did what she could to guide him, leading by example with velvety kisses and soft caresses.

Sara knew he was turning a corner on the fifteenth day, after Mick had left their bed with his usual kisses to their cheeks, leaving them to hold each other as he did each morning.

Len hadn't woken in the night at all this time.

He lay looking at her, and said, "There's one thing you haven't told me. About future me. The look you got in your eyes when you said he kissed you..." He moved his head closer to hers on the pillow. "There was something to that."

She glanced away, unsure of what to say.

He laid a hand on her cheek. "Sara, look at me. Tell me." She looked back at him, and he was smiling slightly. "You're going to make me jealous of my future self."

She sighed. "That's what I'm afraid of."

"Oh, Sara." He kissed her forehead. "He's the man I will be, someday. And I think I'm going to need your help to get there. So tell me."

She pulled back and looked into his eyes again. Her breath caught in her throat at the love and trust she saw in them. "It's easier for me to show you," she whispered, laying her own hand along the side of his face.

"All right," he agreed in a whisper of his own.

She kissed him then, softly, her thumb caressing his cheek. Then she moved to lay over him, changing the angle of the kiss and sliding her hand into the stubble of his hair. She softly teased his lips open, to gently sweep her tongue into his mouth and twine it with his. She swallowed a gasp from him as she nibbled at his lower lip, before pulling back just enough to brush his lips softly and then deepen the kiss again.

When she pulled away at last, she saw a stunned look in his eyes. He was panting for air. Finally he said, "That… that's a lot to live up to." He framed both sides of her face. "I think we're going to need…" he paused and smiled, "…a lot of practice. That okay with you?"

She smiled softly and nodded before his lips met hers again.

On the fifteenth night, Mick went back to sleeping in his own bed.

On the twentieth day, Leonard stopped one of Ray's technobabbles with a verbal shot that made even Ray howl with laughter.

On the thirtieth day, Gideon ceased her direction of Len's dreams. He didn't need it any more.

On the three hundredth day, they made love for the first time as husband and wife.

Afterwards, lying in her arms, Len told her, "You know, at first I was jealous of that older version of me."

"I had a feeling you were."

He chuckled and held her a little more tightly. "But now, I want to thank him. If not for him, I don't think we'd be here right now."

She smiled and kissed him, before nestling against him to drift into sleep.

Day 2,856

"Happy anniversary."

Len smiled at Sara's reflection in the mirror. She was leaning against the bathroom door, dressed in her white silk robe. In one hand she was holding a small, cream-colored envelope. He raised an eyebrow as he grabbed a towel to dry off from his shower. "Since when do we do Hallmark, pretty bird?"

She dimpled. "This didn't come from any greeting card shop. Remember what you said on our wedding night? How you wanted to thank your older self?"

He nodded thoughtfully. "I remember."

She handed him the envelope. "Well, I did it for you. I put it away so I could give it to you on the anniversary after you travel back to 2016. Today. I figured that was safest for the timeline."

He tilted his head curiously as he took it. She followed him into the bedroom, where he sat on the bed and kissed her already-swelling belly. This pregnancy was showing much faster than the two before. He laid a hand on her middle for just a moment before tugging her down beside him. "You've been holding onto this all this time?"

She nodded. "And I haven't re-read it since that night, so I don't remember exactly what I said."

He slid a finger under the envelope flap and opened it. There was a cream colored card inside. He pulled it out and began to read aloud the short message Sara had left.

"Leonard, love of my heart,

"You're asleep as I write this. You told me you wanted to thank the older you, and so do I. For saving me. For saving us all. For telling me not to give up. You gave me hope, at a time when all my hope had run out. I will love you forever for that. Your Sara." He closed his eyes and just held her for a long moment after he finished reading. Then he said, "Do you remember that morning when you showed me how I kissed you during that time jump?"

She smiled. "I remember the stunned look in your eyes, too. What are you thinking, love of my heart?"

For an answer, he pulled her down with him on the bed, kissing her thoroughly, one hand cradling her head while the other rested tenderly on her belly and the child growing within. When he pulled back, he smiled at the look in her eyes. "Thought it was time to up my game," he said. "But we're going to need a lot of practice. That okay with you?"

She chuckled and nodded before his lips met hers again.

-END-

End note: This is also posted to my livejournal, and to the new lot_fans community there.