Peace and Space
Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I don't own Legends of Tomorrow.
AN:
This is a sequel to "Peace Stained with Blood" in which Rip is helped by Team Flash to get over his brainwashing by the Legion. I found it somewhat incongruous that Rip decided to leave at the end of S2 given Sara's speech in Moonshot where she basically tells him to stay. So this is a romance (Time Canary) because people do stupid stuff when they're in love and Rip cannot be thinking straight at this point. However, there is also some plot and it takes Sara and Rip a while to work things out.
It mostly ignores events in The Flash, even though quite a lot of it is set in Central City with Team Flash being central to the story. Caitlin and Julian are still dating and Killer Frost doesn't make an appearance.
Updates may not be the most frequent, because this is a work in progress, but I'll do my best to get stuff up in a timely manner.
"I ask for insubstantial time: peace and space
… while fate teaches my beaten spirit to grieve." – Virgil, Aeneid, Bk 4.435-436
Rip already knew where he was going when he left the Waverider. Yes, he had just lied to Sara about the reason that he was leaving, and he'd have left without saying a word if he could have done, but the important point was that he was leaving.
They'd all do much better without him, as had been demonstrated by their months of travel fixing aberrations without need for his presence. Sara may have given him a nice speech about him being one of them, a Legend, but he'd never fitted in and they both knew it. Having a former Time Master on the ship was probably more of a hindrance these days. He was still trying to do things the old way when they'd had much better success without adhering to the rules he'd been set.
Except he knew that was only partially true and he was basically lying to himself about the real reason he was leaving. The issue was that things were complicated and he didn't want to admit, even to himself, that he was struggling with understanding who he was now. He wasn't fully over his brush with his darker side, courtesy of the Legion of Doom, he'd never really been able to grieve properly for his wife and child, and then there was the fact that he'd returned to the Waverider to find that Sara was a brilliant Captain, leaving him without any kind of purpose on the ship.
But if that had been it, he could still have found the time and space to recover himself and work out what he was supposed to do with his life. The problem was Sara herself, and not just her Captaincy. Or rather the problem was his proximity to Sara.
He didn't know when it had happened, or even how, but at some point he'd begun to care about Sara. He'd only worked out what was going on when he'd tried to kill her, or at least when he remembered that he'd tried to kill her after he'd been returned to his right mind. He'd hurt and killed other people whilst he was Evil Rip, and he felt all of his betrayals deeply, but it was Sara's attempted murder that had been the hardest thing to deal with. It was her death that his nightmares were about, over and over again. His subconscious had clearly been trying to tell him something.
And she was a magnificent Captain, one of the best he'd ever seen. Watching her deal with everything that they'd had to face had simply reinforced Rip's opinion that Sara was something special. He got a small, warm glow in his chest every time he looked at her, and he recognised that feeling because he'd experienced it before. He wished he'd been able to feel happy for that, but instead it had horrified him, and the guilt hit him hard.
Miranda and Jonas had been dead for a just over a year and a half in his personal subjective timeline. He could not care for someone else, no matter how unlikely a relationship might be with that person or how tentative the feelings. It felt like a huge betrayal of his family, a desecration of their memories to even be thinking such thoughts, and he could not do that to them. He had always imagined, had intended, that Miranda would be his first and only love, and quite frankly he'd never expected to even entertain the idea that he would love someone else. He knew that one day his grief over her death would lessen, but he had never had any interest in any women other than her before. He didn't want to get over her or move on.
By far the biggest problem was that Rip looked at Sara and saw everything in her that had attracted him to Miranda. She was strong, independent, beautiful, smart, and more than his equal. And the first time he'd understood that, he'd returned to his quarters and drunk three large tumblers of rum because his chest had physically hurt.
He knew he still had to work through everything that the Legion of Doom had brainwashed him into doing and that he really wasn't over it, despite what he was trying to persuade everyone else into believing. However, he'd honestly thought that, after Caitlin's help, he could return to the Waverider and be part of the team again. Even if they did look at him differently now, but he'd tried not to notice that. He knew they'd need time to adjust after everything he'd put them through. If he was having trouble dealing with it then it was only to be expected that they would too.
The issue he was having was that he couldn't deal with the aftermath of being brainwashed by the Legion, the depression, the flashbacks, the nightmares, the guilt… and his feelings for Sara. It was too much, and it was tearing him apart. Sara had never, even looked at him with anything more than professionalism. He knew she didn't care for him in the same way that he was beginning to care for her. There was only one solution. He needed distance from the Waverider, as well as from its new Captain, and with the current crisis over, now was the right time to go. It was time for a new start.
He entered the jump-ship, stowed his gear and sat down in the pilot's seat. He started on the pre-flight check list and powered up the engines. He leaned back in his seat for a moment.
"Gideon, I'm going to miss you, my friend."
"I will miss you too, Captain," said Gideon. "Although I still don't see the necessity for you to leave the Waverider."
"You know I work better alone, Gideon," said Rip. "Sara will take good care of you."
"She put me in the path of a meteor storm," said Gideon, somewhat crossly.
"I put you in the path of a nuclear weapon," Rip pointed out.
"After you exhausted all other possibilities," said Gideon. "We could have shot down the meteors and avoided damage. It took me quite some time to repair myself with Mr Jackson's and your help."
Rip sighed. "We've all made poor decisions occasionally. Sara's still learning. I was terrible when I was a new Captain. Please don't make this any harder than it already is, Gideon. I need to know that you'll look after her and the team."
"Of course, Captain. It is my primary function to protect my Captain and crew," said Gideon. "Whoever they may be."
"Thank you, Gideon," said Rip. "Could you open the bay doors, please? It's time I took my leave."
"Of course, Captain. Please take care of yourself. I am not going to be around to ensure your safety," said Gideon. The bay doors opened.
"I'm not planning on doing anything dangerous. I'm retiring after all. I'm sure I'll be quite alright on my own," said Rip, lifting the jump-ship up and out of the Waverider.
He steered into the temporal zone. It was time he started a new phase in his life and left Sara and the Waverider behind him.
It had been about two weeks since the Legends had collected their Captain and departed for whatever adventures they'd been off to. Since then, Team Flash had taken an excursion to Gorilla City, which had been followed by Central City had been attacked by Gorilla Grodd, Barry was no closer to saving Iris, and somehow Caitlin was dating Julian. At least something good had happened to someone.
It was late and Barry was fiddling with a new computer program that he'd been writing. One of Cisco's alarms sounded, but it wasn't their standard metahuman alert or the police scanner. This was the STAR Labs alarm that meant someone or something was approaching the building. Barry frowned, put on his Flash costume in a blur of light and went to investigate at super-speed.
He reached the STAR Labs carpark and realised immediately why the alarm had sounded. There was a spaceship in the carpark, rapidly cloaking, and all he'd caught was its general shape before it disappeared. The most alarming thing about it was that it definitely wasn't the Waverider. He had about a second to reflect on the kind of life he had that meant he was worried because the wrong spaceship was in the carpark, and not about it being a spaceship in general, and then the door opened. A familiar figure strode down the ramp.
"Rip? Where's the Waverider?" asked Barry, coming to meet his guest as he stepped off the ship.
"Off saving time somewhere, I expect," said Rip, as he used a remote control to shut the door behind him. "I've borrowed the jump-ship."
Barry frowned. "Okay. What needs saving and where?"
Rip raised his eyebrows. "Er, nothing actually. I just decided that I should strike out on my own for a while, and I thought I'd drop in and see Caitlin and the rest of Team Flash before heading on my way."
Barry smiled. "Well, it's good to see you again. Caitlin's gone home but she'll be back tomorrow morning. Do you want to wait? You can have your old room back if you need a bed for the night."
Rip rocked back on his heels for a moment, hands in his pockets, eyes on his feet, and then looked up at Barry, before glancing back towards where the jump-ship had been. "Thank you, it appears that I need to recalibrate the jump-ship's temporal delineator. I was supposed to arrive mid-afternoon."
Barry shrugged. "You're always welcome here, no matter what time it is. Come on, I'll update you on what's been happening over the last couple of weeks while you were away."
Rip nodded and followed Barry into the building as Barry gave him the story of how they had defeated a gorilla army. Rip was interested but unusually quiet and didn't offer any further explanation for why he was here. Something was going on here, something that Rip wasn't quite ready to talk about yet, but maybe Caitlin could get it out of him. Barry found Rip blankets and a pillow, and set him up in his old room in the lab.
"Ah, fond memories of broken furniture and late night Doctor Who," said Rip, looking around the room.
Barry smiled. "I can find you somewhere else if you'd like, but we usually keep clean sheets on the bed in here because we're never sure when we might need an isolation room."
"I'll be fine. I can assure you that it's more comfortable than the floor of the jump-ship," said Rip, taking off his coat and jacket. "Besides it's nice to be somewhere familiar, and I could do with a good night's sleep."
Rip did look somewhat better than when Barry had last seen him, but then Rip had been recovering from the grips of a period of deep depression and the aftermath of Thawne's mind control. He looked like he'd at least been sleeping better and eating, which Barry knew were things he'd had issues with before.
"How long has it been for you? Since you were here?"
"Oh, er, three weeks. Not long," said Rip.
"Okay, only one week more than for us," said Barry. "Are you staying long?"
"No, just passing through," said Rip.
Barry nodded. "Well, make yourself comfortable. I should get home to Iris. I'll see you in the morning."
Rip nodded. "Good night, Barry."
Barry headed out of the lab, but sent Caitlin and the others a text to let them know that they had a guest at the Lab. He didn't want anyone getting a surprise, even though they all knew Rip after his previous stay. Barry had a feeling that Rip might be hanging around for a while, despite his suggestion to the contrary.
Caitlin had been surprised to get the text from Barry quite so late at night, and even more surprised by its contents.
"We have a visitor at the lab. Rip's here and staying with us for a couple of days. Jump-ship is cloaked and in the carpark."
To be fair, she'd had stranger texts from Barry, but not many.
She arrived early at the Lab, with coffee, tea and pain au chocolat. It was easily Rip's favourite breakfast food, and it had only taken her a week and half to work it out. The man himself very rarely expressed a preference for anything, and she'd had to work it out through observation, trial and error. Hot chocolate had come into the same category, and she'd only found out about that the day before he'd left. She'd wondered about why it was so hard to get him to admit that he liked anything, but had never found the time to ask him with all the other things that they'd been dealing with.
She headed around to his room, not sure whether she'd find him awake yet, but he was sat cross-legged on his bed, reading a book. She knocked on the door.
"Caitlin," smiled Rip, looking up from his book. "It's good to see you again." He put the book down.
"You too," said Caitlin. "I brought breakfast," she added, holding up the cups from the coffee cart and the brown bag containing the pastries.
"You are an angel," said Rip. "I am famished."
"Come on, I'll set it out on one of the tables in the cortex and you can tell me all about how you come to be in Central City again," said Caitlin.
Rip nodded. "That is only fair after I turn up on your doorstep in the middle of the night. I really must look at the fractional stabiliser on the time manifold."
He followed Caitlin out of the side lab and into the cortex, where he helped her set up a table and two chairs so that they had somewhere to eat. She noted that he was looking relatively well, certainly better than when she'd seen him last. They sat, and she handed him his tea, pain au chocolat and a paper napkin, getting a small smile of appreciation for her trouble.
"Do you mind if I get the professional questions out of the way first?" she asked.
"Not at all, Doctor Snow," replied Rip, as he sipped his tea.
"Okay. Apologies if these sound a bit patronising," said Caitlin. "Did Gideon sort out the anti-depressants for you?"
Rip nodded, his eyes suddenly serious. "Yes, and I am taking them faithfully. I've got enough to keep me going for at least a month, but obviously I'd appreciate it if you could prescribe me more when those run out."
Caitlin frowned. "You're not going to be back on the Waverider before then?"
"I'm not planning to be," replied Rip.
Caitlin wanted to ask why, but she suspected that they'd get to that. "Any problems with the medication? Side effects?"
"None, apart from some slight queasiness when I first started taking them, but Gideon assured me that it was normal and would pass. She was correct, of course," said Rip.
"Good," said Caitlin. "And your general mental state? How are you feeling?"
"Mostly fine," said Rip. "A few wobbles here and there, but I haven't had any thoughts about harming myself."
Caitlin was very pleased to hear that, but suspected he was playing down the "wobbles" for her benefit. "That's great news, Rip. So, the medication seems to be working. How are you sleeping?"
Rip shrugged. "Well, not soundly, but I can sleep. The dreams aren't as horrible as they were and not every night. I consider it to be quite good progress given my chronic insomnia when I last saw you."
"You do look better," said Caitlin, sipping her coffee and reaching for one of the other pain au chocolats. Given how terrible he'd looked when he'd arrived at their door the first time, that wasn't hard.
"I feel better, but then I think I'd be dead if it weren't for your efforts," said Rip, somewhat seriously.
"All I did was set you in the direction you needed to go," said Caitlin. "You did all the work yourself."
Rip let out a huff of breath, and looked at Caitlin with definite fondness. "I think we both know that I'd never have managed to pull myself out of the deep, dark pit I was in without your help. And the rest of Team Flash, to be honest. I'm certain that Dr Who marathons should be added to the PTSD therapy manual."
Caitlin grinned. "Don't tell Cisco that, he'll start lobbying for it."
Rip smiled back, picking up his own pain au chocolat and biting into it, with enthusiasm. "Oh, I'd missed these," he said, happily.
"No pain au chocolate on the Waverider?"
"We haven't really had time to stop off to pick anything up," said Rip, and Caitlin was pretty certain that was a half-truth at best. It was a time ship, after all.
"But you're eating healthily?" asked Caitlin.
"I eat three meals a day and my weight is in the healthy range," said Rip. "Admittedly, near the lower end, but Gideon has been monitoring it."
"Okay, something to keep an eye on. So, now that the difficult questions are out of the way, is this a social call or were you hoping for a therapy session? I can definitely find time for one if you need it."
"Actually both," said Rip. "I've decided to retire from the Legends. Sara has proven herself to be a far more competent Captain than I ever was and she has a good team, one that operated very satisfactorily without my presence for several months. They really don't need me, so I decided that it was time to give them their space and do something on my own."
Caitlin frowned. That hadn't really been what she was expecting. She'd thought perhaps that he was on a solo mission for the team, or perhaps scouting ahead, or even just on vacation. This sounded rather more permanent than that. And Rip was trying very hard to appear to be totally fine about what he'd told her. However, she'd had two weeks of daily therapy sessions with him and had got very good at knowing when he was either lying to himself or to her. This was definitely one of those things.
"Rip, you've been through a lot lately. Are you sure that now is the best time to be making big decisions?" Caitlin was a little concerned.
"I couldn't stay, Caitlin," said Rip, all pretence disappearing from his face. "They don't blame me for what I did, but they do look at me differently. And how could they not?"
Caitlin reached out a hand and put it on his arm. "Maybe they just need some time."
"Maybe, but everything else that I said was true. Sara has found her calling, and a ship can't have two Captains. At best I'm a distraction, at worst I'm a potential liability in a dangerous situation. You should have seen her. She was magnificent…" said Rip, his eyes getting a faraway and fond look. "She saved reality itself."
"You were there too," said Caitlin, but she'd caught the look of longing in his eyes when he mentioned Sara. Something else was definitely going on here.
"In a purely supporting role," said Rip, dismissively, pulling a piece off his pastry, but not eating it.
Caitlin let out a surreptitious sigh. She was fairly certain that the last thing Rip needed was to be alone at the moment, with the demons of Thawne's brainwashing still haunting him and the grief for his family also unresolved, despite what he might say to the contrary. She doubted that it would be healthy for him to be left without his support network at the moment, but it appeared that he'd made the decision and she didn't think he'd go back on it now.
"So, what are you going to do now?"
Rip looked down at his breakfast and then back to Caitlin. "I have absolutely no idea." He spoke as if he was telling her a secret, and she realised that he looked as lost as she'd ever seen him. "I've never been anything except a Time Master, and I am totally without a clue as to where I go next. The Legends are covering the aberrations, and the jump-ship isn't the Waverider anyway. I have no task that I'm needed for, and no resources even if I did want to continue travelling through time. I'll have to do some time travelling, assuming I don't just want to drift wherever I end up…"
"Drift?" asked Caitlin.
"If a time traveller stays in a time that isn't their own for too long then they experience something called "time drift". You can forget who you are, start believing that you've always been there and lose yourself. It can be quite pleasant, which is why it's incredibly hard to pull oneself away and go back to your old life. However, if I have no reason to remain a time traveller, I could pick a time period and just… settle down. It's what Miranda chose to do," said Rip, with a touch of sadness.
"It sounds like you have some decisions to make," said Caitlin. "Starting with what you might want to do and, I guess, when you might want to do it."
Rip nodded slowly. "How do I even begin to decide something like that?"
Caitlin shrugged. "You need to look at the skills you have and then work out what you might be good at."
"And I'm going to have to earn some money," said Rip. "The jump-ship doesn't have a fabricator like the Waverider. I mean, I have bank accounts that I've set up for emergencies, but certainly they don't contain enough money for me to live on forever. I suppose I could jump back and set up some more…"
"Or you just get a job," said Caitlin. "You'll need something to stop you getting bored."
Rip frowned. "Well, it would certainly be a novelty."
"But you're going to need somewhere to stay until you can work out what you want to do," said Caitlin.
"Ah, yes," said Rip. "I can take the jump-ship back into the time stream and work out where to go from there. I should probably go shopping for supplies first." He resumed eating with a thoughtful look on his face.
"Or you could, you know, stay here with us," said Caitlin, with a slight sideways dip of her head.
Rip's eyes widened for a second, clearly having genuinely not thought of that. "Oh, yes, I suppose I could. As long as you and the rest of the team don't mind?"
Caitlin smiled warmly. "Of course not. You're an honorary member of the team anyway. You're always welcome here."
Sara hit the training dummy hard and followed it up with a roundhouse kick. She'd set herself up in one of the cargo compartments that were on the lower deck of the Waverider, preferring to train in privacy. Of course, she couldn't ever find anywhere on the ship that Gideon couldn't go.
"Captain Lance, Captain Hunter asked me to inform you if you were in danger of injuring yourself whilst training," said Gideon.
"Did he? Well, Captain Hunter can go screw himself," said Sara, kicking out again with as much force as she could muster. The training dummy flew backwards. She felt a muscle in her leg pull and winced. "Damn it! He's a pain in the ass even when he isn't here."
She sat down on the mat, breathing rapidly from her exertions. She might have to acknowledge the fact that despite what she'd said to him, she was angry at him for deciding to leave, and equally angry at herself for not stopping him. He definitely had a point, she was the Captain now, and they had Jax to handle the mechanical side of things, and Nate to cover the history and weird artefacts; they didn't really need him as such. Except this team had never really been about needing people for their skills alone, otherwise they'd have offloaded Mick as soon as Amaya arrived to take on the role of muscle. They didn't have a one in, one out policy. Besides, Rip was smart, handy with a pistol, and it had been nice to have someone to act as her second in command, especially when she was questioning herself. He'd been the one to tell her to believe in herself.
"Gideon, do we know where Rip went?"
"He did not inform me what his intentions were but I can activate the tracking program for the jump-ship," said Gideon.
"No, it's okay. If he'd wanted us to know then he'd have said."
Gideon didn't reply to that.
"I should never have let him leave. He's not over the mind control thing and he jokes about us getting into trouble, but he's the one who needed rescuing from the Legion of Doom," said Sara.
"Captain Hunter travelled alone for many years before he decided to assemble the crew," said Gideon.
"And how many times did he return injured from whatever he was doing?"
"Forty-nine," said Gideon. "Not all his injuries were serious though." Which, Sara noted, suggested that some were. And wait, he was injured forty-nine times over thirteen years whilst on missions for the Time Masters and this was the first she was hearing about it? When she saw him again they were going to have words about that.
"Great, so what was that? Roughly once every three or four months?" asked Sara.
"Approximately, Captain Lance," said Gideon, cheerfully. She was always cheerful, even when she was reporting dire malfunctions or that her previous Captain had apparently been somewhat careless with his own life on occasion.
Sara sighed. Rip was going to end up getting himself into trouble and he wouldn't have the Waverider's resources to fix himself when he inevitably got hurt. However, if she went after him then he'd accuse her of being overprotective and ignoring his wishes to leave the team.
"The jump-ship has a distress beacon, doesn't it?" asked Sara.
"Yes, Captain," replied Gideon.
"Monitor for it as a priority and let me know the moment it goes off," said Sara. She was definitely thinking "when" and not "if".
"I already am, Captain," said Gideon again.
"Oh, okay, good," replied Sara. She should have known Gideon wouldn't let Rip out on his own without keeping an eye out for his distress call.
She knew that she was being paranoid, but given his track record, she had a very bad feeling about Rip's future prospects. He was the one who'd given them the lecture about how dangerous being a time traveller was, so he couldn't blame her if she'd taken it to heart. And now she was worried about the idiot, and who knew when or if she'd see him again. She should just put him from her mind and get on with the job of being Captain.
She grabbed her towel and decided to head for the shower. She walked down the familiar corridors, and did her best to think about the next mission. She passed Nate on the way who was looking quite miserable.
"What's the problem?" she asked.
"I think Gideon hates me," said Nate, with a glance up at the ceiling.
"Okay," said Sara, with some scepticism. "Why do you think Gideon hates you?"
"Well, this morning she wouldn't give me any hot water for my shower, then she refused to fabricate me a cup of coffee, and now she's turning off the lights whenever I walk into a room," said Nate.
Sara let out a long sigh and glanced upwards. "Gideon! Quit it."
"Not until Doctor Heywood apologises," said Gideon.
"I don't know what I did!" said Nate, plaintively.
"Then perhaps you should think harder," replied Gideon.
"Argh!" said Nate, with frustration.
"You didn't tell her to buffer faster again, did you?" asked Sara. "You know she hates that."
"She's been in a bad mood ever since Rip left," said Nate.
"Well, that's hardly surprising," said Sara. "The two of them were together for thirteen years before Rip decided to recruit us and then he just leaves one day. I expect she misses him."
"She's a computer," said Nate.
Sara rolled her eyes. It was just as well that Rip wasn't here. He'd have probably shouted at Nate for that remark, but Sara was more inclined to educate him and it seemed that Gideon had already found a suitable punishment.
"She's the ship's AI, a member of the crew, and her name is Gideon. She hates being called a computer. She also hates it when you compare her to a games console or suggest she's just a machine. She's saved our lives more times than I care to count. Now, goddamn apologise!" As it turned out, Sara did find herself a little cross on Gideon's behalf and she really didn't feel like dealing with this today.
Nate looked somewhat taken aback at Sara's tone and a little guilty. "Gideon," he said, "I'm sorry that I said you were just a computer. I'm good at putting my foot in my mouth like that. I know you're more than that."
"Apology accepted, Doctor Heywood," said Gideon, brightly.
"Good," said Sara, and moved away down the corridor again. It seemed to be more than she could expect that her crew would play nice together.
"Sorry, Sara," shouted Nate towards her retreating back. Sara waved off his apology.
"Captain Lance," said Gideon, once Sara had reached her quarters. "Thank you for interceding on my behalf and what you said. I was perhaps overly sensitive to his remarks. I'm unsure why they affected me more than usual."
"It's okay, Gideon. I miss him too," said Sara, with a slight sigh.
Gideon was silent in reply.
"Okay," said Julian, standing in front of the glass board with a white marker pen. "What are your main skills?"
Somehow, he had been roped into this brainstorming session with Rip, Barry, Cisco and Caitlin to find out what kind of job they should be looking into for Rip. He still wasn't quite sure how that had happened but it possibly had something to do with Caitlin smiling at him and asking nicely, that worked for a surprising range of things these days. He quickly dismissed that thought before it could distract him further.
Rip thought for a moment, and then spoke.
"Making discreet alterations to the timeline to prevent aberrations, pistol marksmanship, time ship piloting, temporal navigation, time ship maintenance and time line monitoring," he replied. "Oh, erm, AI maintenance."
Julian, Caitlin, Barry and Cisco exchanged glances. Julian did not write any of those things on the board, and he was quite sure that they'd bitten off more than any of them could chew with this exercise. He would never have believed that he'd be trying to find a new job for a former guardian of the timeline. They were also discovering that Rip really didn't understand the nature of the employment market or even what you did to get a job.
"I'm sure that was all really useful for a Time Master," said Caitlin, gently, "but we're talking about transferrable skills. Things which are more general."
"I suppose I'm quite good at history too, although I'm never quite sure what counts as history when you're a Time Master," said Rip, with a frown.
Julian wrote down "History expert" on the board, and it sat there alone while Rip continued to frown.
"There's got to be other things. I expect you're good at computers, being from the future," said Barry, with a hand out to indicate the nearest computer.
"Well, I can use one, although I'm not much of a programmer," said Rip, which knowing Rip probably meant that he'd programmed the Waverider himself and invented at least one programming language. "I might have to familiarise myself with this particular era's operating systems."
Julian wrote down "Computer literate" and decided not to go into more detail.
"You like to read," said Caitlin, as if that was something to be proud of. In Julian's experience, just enjoying a good book didn't get you many jobs, at least not on its own. Rip gave a shrug.
Julian wrote down "Can read".
"Dude, a little harsh," said Cisco.
"I assume you can write as well," said Julian, ignoring Cisco, and added "and write" to the end of the line as Rip confirmed.
"I'm reasonably good with maths and physics as it applies to time travel," said Rip.
"Numerate" Julian added to the board, and "Some temporal physics knowledge" he put on a separate line beneath.
There was silence for a moment as they all contemplated the board. There wasn't anything there which suggested an obvious career path.
"Maybe you could be a history teacher?" asked Barry, tentatively.
"I have no teaching qualifications, and quite frankly, I suspect that I wouldn't have the patience," said Rip.
"That didn't stop some of my professors," said Julian, dryly.
"Even so, I'd stand no chance of any education establishment giving me a job without a qualification," said Rip.
"That's probably true," said Caitlin, clearly still wondering if there was a way around that. Julian really didn't think Rip was teacher material, and suspected that the time traveller had already worked that out.
"I hadn't realised quite how useless my skills as a Time Master would be in the real world," said Rip, despondently.
"Investigative skills!" suggested Cisco, with enthusiasm. "You don't just turn up at an aberration and fix it, I assume. There must be some detective work to find out what's going on."
"Yes, I suppose so," said Rip. "I tracked Vandal Savage through multiple time periods and places before we caught up to him. But I'm not convinced that's exactly a transferrable skill."
Julian put a hand on his chin. "Maybe we should ask Detective West if he'd take you on a ride along. You could be ideally suited to joining the CCPD as a detective, although I expect you'd have to attend the police academy."
"You're forgetting that I don't exist on paper. I'd need fake ID and probably other documents to even apply, and I'm not sure that we want the police department scrutinising me. Especially as I probably count as an illegal alien of some sort."
"I can make you ID," said Cisco. "And we have a friend who can hack the computer databases so you appear in the right places."
"Thank you, I think I'm going to need that, whatever I end up doing," said Rip.
"Private Investigator, then," suggested Barry, "less scrutiny and you'd still get to use your investigatory skills."
"But you spend your time following the wives of jealous husbands to see if they're cheating on them, or vice versa, and digging up dirt on business rivals," Julian pointed out.
Cisco tapped on the keyboard. "And you still need to do a course, take an exam to get a licence and be fingerprinted by CCPD."
"Maybe not that then," said Rip with a sigh. "The last thing I need is my fingerprints being officially on file, and I don't really like the sound of following people around just to take pictures of them being unfaithful to their spouses."
"Okay, so perhaps not something involving investigating people," said Caitlin.
"You could just work here with us," said Cisco.
"I'm happy to help out, but given that it's become quite obvious that I don't have much in the way of skills to offer, I'm not sure how much use I'd be to you. You already have a number of competent scientists, investigators and two speedsters, you don't need me spoiling your dynamic and getting in the way," said Rip.
"You wouldn't be in the way," said Barry.
"Yeah, and it's not like HR's a genius and he's still here," said Cisco.
"Ah, but he is good at inspiring the rest of you," said Rip. "If you ever need to plan a raid on a Time Pirate outpost then I'd be happy to give you tips but I doubt you come across those often in Central City 2017."
"Not much," admitted Barry. "But I bet you're good at tactics in general. Anyone who can beat me at chess in four moves has to be good at planning. Maybe you should just see how you fit before you dismiss it."
Rip shrugged. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt, but I'll still need a day job and somewhere to live."
"Well, we can keep thinking about what would be the right day job. We don't have to rush this. Finding you an apartment should be easy enough," said Caitlin. "What sort of budget are we looking at?"
Rip's forehead furrowed. "I don't know. I suppose I'd best go to the Central City bank and see what kind of balance I currently have."
"Or I could just access your account online," said Cisco. "What are the details?"
Rip looked a little surprised by this for a second. "Of course, this is 2017." He fished in one of the pockets of the long coat he was inexplicably wearing inside, and brought out a leather-bound notebook. He flicked through and came to the page he wanted. He handed Cisco the book. "The one that's under the name Jonathan Ripley."
Cisco took the book and headed around to his computer. "Okay, customer accounts."
He typed for a bit. "I hate bank websites. They always have to do things the hardest way possible. But I've got it." His eyes went wide. "Well, you're definitely going to have enough for rent."
Everyone moved around the desk to look at the balance that was displayed on screen.
"Oh my," said Caitlin. "That's a lot of money, Rip."
"Hmm, I'd hoped for more," said Rip. "I suppose the interest rate has been low of late."
"You could buy an apartment with that," said Barry.
"Several apartments," pointed out Julian. "Although I suppose you will need money to live off until you start earning."
"Indeed," said Rip. "So, I should probably confine my search to somewhere modest. I don't need anywhere large, just a bed to sleep in at night."
"Okay, we can do an online search in a suitable price range for one and two bedroom apartments and studios," said Cisco. "Then one of us can take you round the realtors tomorrow when we've got a list of what to look at. You're going to want to live somewhere reasonably close to the lab…" Cisco typed in his search criteria. "And there's no need for you to live in a bad area, or get ripped off in the posh districts. Somewhere in between."
Caitlin nodded at the decisions Cisco was making. Rip just looked somewhat bewildered.
"I've never had my own apartment before," said Rip. "I went straight from the Refuge to the Academy and then I was given the Waverider. Miranda sorted out the house in London. This is going to be… new."
Julian patted Rip on the shoulder. "Don't worry, mate, we'll help you sort it all out, but for now, maybe we could all use some coffee."
Rip nodded. "Good idea. At least I can make myself useful by getting the coffee."
"Actually, I was offering to do it," said Julian.
Rip shook his head. "Please, allow me. I'm familiar with how to use the coffee machine and who has what. Consider it part payment for your help in finding my accommodation."
Rip disappeared towards the kitchen, long coat swishing behind him.
"That guy has no idea what real life is like, does he?" said Cisco with a sigh, once he'd checked that Rip was out of earshot. "I'm not sure we can even let him live alone with a clear conscience."
"He'll be fine," said Caitlin. "He just needs a period of adjustment. I think he was finding it all a little overwhelming."
"It reminds me of when I first moved to the States," said Julian, thoughtfully. "You lot may speak the same language, albeit somewhat mangled, but this isn't the UK. There are a hundred and one ways this country felt totally alien when I came here. I remember just trying to work out the money to buy a cup of coffee, and then there's how you buy a subway ticket, order at a restaurant, what tip to leave… it's a nightmare of new ways of doing everything. And the culture shock must be twice as great if you've never really spent time in any one period or country. You don't even have your own normal experiences to draw upon."
"I hadn't thought about that," said Barry. "I suppose he must have spent time with his family wherever they settled in the future."
"Which won't help much with Central City in 2017," said Julian. "I mean why did he pick this time? He's got no ties to here or anywhere. There must be better places than here to settle down when you have all of time and space at your fingertips."
Caitlin smirked. "You're adorably clueless at times."
Julian frowned. "I am?"
"Julian, there's only one reason he's here," said Barry. "And that's because we're the next best thing to a home that he has."
Julian's eyes widened as he metaphorically kicked himself. "Ah. Of course. But he only spent two weeks here. There really isn't anywhere else he'd rather go?"
Caitlin shrugged. "I've never got the impression that he has a lot of friends, and obviously he doesn't have a family anymore. I'd guess no one else ever took the time to get to know him like we did. And he and the Legends are clearly having a few issues at the moment after the brainwashing…"
"Or there's something else going on," said Cisco, eyes still glued to the screen.
"Like what?" asked Barry.
Cisco raised his eyebrows. "I don't know. It just seems strange that they were all so desperate to get him back and now here he is, retired from the team. Sara was practically going to rip us all limb from limb for letting him get shot, and I really thought Mick might start breaking stuff. Makes you wonder."
Caitlin frowned now. "He's definitely not giving us the whole truth about why he left them, but without contacting them and asking, it's hard to know what really happened in the last three weeks to make him decide that it wasn't right for him anymore."
"Perhaps he isn't doing quite as well as we thought," said Barry. "He wanted to run away before."
"But he didn't," said Caitlin. "And we know that he's still not properly recovered, because that would be impossible."
Julian shrugged. "We can't make him tell us what's bothering him. All we can really do is offer him a bed for a few nights and our friendship."
Caitlin nodded. "He'll tell us if he wants to, when he's ready."
"Hey," said Cisco, "look at this one. Rip had quite the collection of memorabilia on the Waverider. Do you think "history expert" extends to…"
Barry nodded and Caitlin apparently agreed.
"Yes," said Caitlin, thoughtfully. "I think it might."
Julian smiled. "Nicely done, Cisco, I think that could be exactly what our time travelling friend needs."