Disclaimer: I do not own LOT or any of its characters.
The last thing they expected was for the Waverider to take off without them, but that's exactly what happened. They could only watch in disbelief as it disappeared from view, and they were stranded in a small suburban town in 1958. It wasn't that difficult to surmise that Chronos had hijacked their vessel, and as the minutes passed and it didn't return, it became more apparent that their teammates were mostly likely dead.
They knew what they had to do- they had to keep moving so that Vandal Savage couldn't track them. It was a wordless agreement to stick together, at least for the time being. It made sense to utilize the strength in unity, specially in a time and place where they had nobody else.
Jacking a car was easy. The hard part was deciding who would do it. They had to settle it the mature way, with rock-papers-scissors, and they had a feeling that a lot of future decisions would be taken the same way.
Sara drove. She might have snapped his neck if he didn't let her, judging by the lines on her forehead and the tensing of her jaw. He couldn't really blame her- this was far from home, from everybody they loved, and without the modern day amenities that they took for granted, like the internet or women empowerment.
On the bright side, the security systems were crap and he could easily rob a few places and be a millionaire.
Sara kept her eyes fixed on the road while he mused about all these possibilities. The silence between them dragged on as the landscapes disappeared from their view. Finally, when they almost reached the city, they ditched the car at a far enough distance so that it couldn't be traced back to them, and decided to walk the rest of the way on foot. Even with their parkas, jackets and boots, they were both shivering. It was clear that they needed a place to crash for the night.
Leonard broke into an unoccupied house quiet easily. The heating system worked, the insulation was good, and the place was overall habitable. They claimed separate rooms, hoping to fall asleep from the exhaustion. But their thoughts kept them up for a long time. What happened to their teammates? Would they ever come back? What would the future be like? Where would their lives take them? Questions that had no right answer clouded their minds for a long time before sleep claimed them.
The next morning, Leonard grabbed a few grands from the home-owners not-so-secret hiding places, and they made their way to a small shop to get breakfast. They both knew they needed to have a conversation about the uncertain future, but neither wanted to be the one to bring it up. After a few cups of coffee and some grilled sandwiches, Sara spoke. "We need to rent an apartment. And find jobs."
He looked at her in amusement. "I already pulled a job this morning, in case you were too sleepy to notice. I think we're good a few weeks. Try not to spend all the money on ponies and teddy bears."
Sara looked at him seriously. "So, what? You plan to spend the rest of your life committing burglary?"
He shrugged. "I have spent my whole life doing this, in case you didn't remember."
"And I used to kill people for a living," she countered, with a plastered smile on her face. "Great career choices. So glad we had this conversation."
He smirked. "So I am guessing Bonnie and Clyde is out of the question then?"
She shook her head grimly. "We cannot draw undue attention on us. You know that." She made a face before she braced herself to say the next sentence. "We have to find mundane jobs."
He almost wanted to let her work and then steal her money. If this was two years back, that's exactly what he would have done. But that's not who he was anymore. He didn't know who he was now, he certainly wasn't a hero, and he certainly was no saint, but he had always lived by a code of honor, always looked out for the people he lo- cared about, and Sara was now one of them. "Fine," he said, formulating a plan already. "We will use the money we have to buy ourselves new identities. Then we can find a cheap place to stay and get jobs. Although, I have no idea who would hire us. I imagine we can't list being crew of the Enterprise on our resume. We don't exactly have other job skills."
Sara huffed. "Oh please! I used to be a bartender once. How hard can a stupid job be?"
It was harder than she remembered. Or maybe it was because this was the late 1950s. The drunk patrons showed her no respect, and she was fired from her third job in a row when she punched one particularly arrogant bastard who wanted to show her a good time.
Leonard, on the other hand, had much better luck. He got himself hired as a security consultant in a reputed company- his job was to find flaws in security protocols in the houses and offices of their clients, and come up with suggestions as to how to improve them, so that there weren't any break ins.
Which, honestly, was a hard thing in the technological dark age. But at least it paid handsomely, and he could boast about inventing a new job title a few decades before it was supposed to be a thing.
"I am not going to live off your money," Sara announced after a whole week of failing to find a job that she did not completely hate.
Leonard shot her a teasing look. "Well, I could hire you as my assistant, but as your last boss so elegantly put it- ain't you just the most rowdy little thin' in the world? You better find a man who don't put up with your shit and settle down."
She glared at him. "You remember what I did to him, right? I'm surprised you dared to repeat the words."
His gaze softened then. "Tell you what? I will keep paying for your expenses, and you pay me back by not killing me."
His sincerity touched her. She nodded. "Fine. But only until I find work."
Unsurprisingly, the job that she finally found was teaching martial arts to little kids. There were a lot of eyebrows raised about a woman doing a man's job, but she was nice to the kids, which earned her the trust of the mothers, and she was pretty on the eyes, which earned her the approval of the fathers, and soon she built a loyal clientele for herself. Enough to pay the rent and a part of the bills at least.
People talked a lot behind her back, and sometimes she heard the whispers. About her inability to snag a husband, about the much older man that she was living with, about the dresses she wore and the blasphemous way she spoke. She ignored it, and continued to do her best to adjust to this life.
It wasn't all bad. She could still be herself, and she still had Leonard. They had fallen into a comfortable routine. Leonard would fix breakfast for them, and they would eat together, whiling reading the newspaper and amusing themselves with how much they missed at history class. Then Leonard would leave for work, and Sara would cook lunch for herself, tidy up things that really couldn't be ignored anymore, eat, and meditate. She had her classes in the late afternoon and evenings, and she often came home later than Leonard, only to find him sitting on the living room, reading old timey magazines. Dinner was on him, and they would talk about their days and complain about the annoying people while he cooked. They ate while continuing their chit-chats. Some days when they weren't too tired, they would have a sparring match before bed. And that was what a typical day looked like in the Snart and Lance household.
Sometimes she wondered if this was how life was supposed to be, if this was how life would have been if she had never been on the Gambit and it had never sank. Then again, maybe if she hadn't been on the Gambit and hadn't become the Canary, she would have never met Leonard, and they would have never had the chance to have what they had, whatever the hell it was that they had. This life was sometimes boring, and at other times pure and simple- everything she never had the chance to experience before. And as much as she sometimes missed her old jagged life and her old jagged self, this almost felt like a second chance at life, a second chance to get it right. And she really hoped she wouldn't mess this up.
Then came the day when Leonard came home looking grim. She knew him well enough to know something was wrong. She stopped in her tracks in the middle of sharpening her knives to stare at him. He put his hat down on the table and motioned for her to take a seat with just a tilt of his head. Sara sat down quietly, dreading whatever was to come.
"I have been promoted," he told her solemnly.
She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "And that's sad because?"
"Because it means I will have to move."
"Oh" was all she said while she tried to process this new information. Leonard had been the one constant in her life in this ridiculous fish out of water mess, and now he was leaving too. She never even realized when she had taken him for granted, when she had fooled herself into thinking that he would always be there. And now that the day dream was over, it hurt. It took every ounce of strength in her to force a smile on her face. "That's great. I'm happy for you."
He nodded, and stared at a distant wall because he couldn't bring himself to look at her. "What about you? What are you going to do?"
She shrugged, trying her best to pretend to be unaffected. She had no clue what she would do. Without Leonard, this charade was meaningless. Maybe she should just go back to the one place that she could still call home, the League of Assassins?
That was the longest evening they had in two years. Dinner was silent, and neither could eat much. Sleep would have been a mercy, if only it came. They stayed awake that night, in their separate rooms, thinking of all the things that had happened to them, and how life might be without that.
The next day, Sara returned home from work to find Leonard was already there, sitting on the floor, his back to the couch, and playing with a ball. She expected to see boxes, to see him preparing for his move, but everything in the room was still in place, in the state of complete disarray that they tended to keep things in. She raised an eyebrow curiously.
He shrugged, and continued playing with the ball. "I quit," he answered simply.
She could not believe her ears. "What?"
He looked straight into her eyes. "Look, I can't tell you to quit your job for me. This may be the fifties, but you can still break my bones. Obviously, the only thing that made sense was quitting."
Her heart skipped a beat. She had spent the whole night pulling herself out of her fantasy bubble, realizing what Leonard meant to her and how she never knew what she had until it was about to be gone. And now he was telling her this, reigniting that hope in her chest that she was desperately trying to strangle. "Why?"
He groaned. "Look, I really don't want to talk about feelings and stuff. As far as I know, we're not dying. So can we please just move on to the part where I get to live off your money till I find a new job?"
Sara crossed her arms over her chest. She was so not going to do that. She was going to grill him about what she thought he was trying to say, and she was-
The doorbell rang.
Leonard raised an eyebrow. Were they expecting anyone?
"Saved by the bell," Sara mumbled as she opened the door.
On the other side was a very familiar figure that she thought was dead. "Sorry we're late," Rip said.
Leonard got off the floor instantly. "Finally!" He drawled, directing a smirk at Sara. "Looks like we got back our old jobs after all." He directed a glance at all the things cluttered all over the room. "Anything you want to take?"
She had a list. "Obviously my weapons and your gun. I think we have leftover pizza in the fridge. Get my shawl, the blue one. And the photos we took at the county fair last week. And-"
He held up a finger to silence her. "Why do I have to be the one to get them? You can do it yourself."
She rose to the challenge. "Best of three?"
And Rip watched in disbelief as they settled it with rock-paper-scissors.
A/N: Hope you liked it :) Feedback much appreciated! :)