NOTE:This story takes place a week after Sara left Ray and Kendra after they were left behind by the team in the 1950's.
"Boy, those bumper cars sure were fun, weren't they?"
As the group walked through the carnival grounds, Kendra knew who her co-worker was directing that question to.
"I'm lucky my husband wasn't around to see me drive like that. He would have just used that as a reminder of why he doesn't let me take out our Plymouth," she hears someone else quip. "Where should we go next?"
"Wherever Kendra wants to go. We came here to make sure she had fun, after all," says someone to the left of her.
Kendra knew that if she didn't speak up now, things would only get worse. "Actually guys, if you don't mind I think I'm going to take off now."
The group stops in front of the House of Mirrors. "Already? We've only been here for half an hour, Kendra. I thought you agreed to spend the night with us until you felt better about your friend leaving," one of them replies.
"And I'm grateful what you guys tried to do for me, but, I just feel like I'm just bringing everyone down and at this point I think I'm better off just being at home. It's been a long week after all," Kendra tries to explain. She really meant it - she could feel herself bringing everyone down.
"Come on, Kendra, stay," they begin to protest.
Kendra sighs as she tries very hard now not to sound impatient. "Really, guys. I don't think I should be here right now."
They look to one another, disappointed and concerned, but relenting. "Alright, if you insist," one of them tells her, "We'll see you tomorrow at the library, I guess." She moves in to give Kendra a brief hug.
"Thanks," Kendra replies as she watches the group walk on without her. She turns around and makes her way to the exit.
It had been more than a week since Sara took off. Kendra would be lying to herself if she said she hadn't seen it coming. Spending so much time with Sara, she could easily sense she wasn't in the slightest bit happy. Neither was she, but Sara was really suffering.
Most of all, however, Kendra was worried about Ray, or, more exactly, her relationship with him. Since Sara's departure, things hadn't been the same between them. They hadn't really talked like they had before. Ray would leave to teach his first class in the mornings before she was up. In the evenings, they would have dinner together, but not really interact. Kendra would turn in to bed before Ray, while he'd stay up to grade some exams or write up some assignments.
It was part of the reason why she agreed to accompany her co-workers from the library. Not because she didn't want to see Ray, but because up until now, it had been Ray laboring to give her space and it was due time she returned the favor. Maybe soon things between them would get back to normal but, for tonight, she just wanted to head home and go straight to bed.
Deep in her thoughts, she almost manages to miss the sight of the exit to her side. She makes her way straight toward it before -
"Kendra?"
She immediately stops in her tracks and turns around to see Ray standing nearby, a stick of cotton candy in hand.
"Ray? What are you doing here?" She asks surprised.
"Well," he begins as he takes a bite of the cotton candy, "a few students of mine invited me here after our last class. I didn't have anything else to do tonight so I thought - what the hell? Good thing I did or I would never had tried this," he jokes as he holds up the stick.
Kendra nods. "I see."
"It's you I'm surprised to see here, though."
She sighs. "Yeah, my co-workers from the library. They knew that I was upset about Sara, so they decided to take me for a fun night out at the carnival to help me get over it."
"Hmm. And how's that going?" Ray asks.
"Well, I got here about half an hour ago and I was already on my way out, so I can't say it went too went well."
"In my experience, cotton candy works wonders for any therapy." Ray says as he extends the stick closer to her.
Kendra smirks before pulling off a small wad of the candy. "Thanks." She pops it in her mouth.
"So - " Ray begins as he takes another bite himself. "How've you been? It's funny that I'm asking you that, seeing as we live with each other - but, you have to admit we haven't exactly been doing a lot of talking lately. Or anything, for that matter."
Kendra looks down. "I'm sorry if you've thought I've been trying to avoid you. It's been more because of me than you, honestly. I just - "
But before she can continue, Ray puts his hand up. "Kendra, it's OK. I understand. Sara was my good friend, but she was your best friend. Her leaving was ten times harder on you than it was on me. Your reaction is - completely normal. In fact, you're holding it together better than I would have if someone that close to me left me."
Though Kendra knew Ray was telling her what she needed to hear, she can't help but feel a huge weight off her shoulders hearing him extend such sympathy to her. "I really appreciate that, Ray," she tells him.
"And if that cotton candy alone doesn't do the trick - something else that could possibly help is talking to someone? Maybe the only other person you know who more or less understands exactly what you're going through?" Ray presses.
Kendra glances behind him to notice the group of his students gathered at a table nearby. "I wouldn't want to take you away from your company."
He looks back to them. "Oh, don't worry about them. I see them everyday. They wouldn't take it personally if I took off now. I'd just say the word."
She takes some time to consider it before she concedes with a small smile. "Alright. I guess I could stick around a little longer."
Ray's eyes light up. "Great! Just one second." Without thinking, he hands Kendra his cotton candy. She holds it as she watches Ray walk over to the group of students and part with them. He shakes hands with a few before heading back to Kendra. "Shall we?" He motions for her to walk ahead.
"I had no idea you were so close to your students," Kendra points out as they begin to walk through the grounds.
"Well, it helps to be one of the younger professors on the faculty. Also helps that I have knowledge of the next 50 plus years in the field of physics for use in conversation, which would make anyone popular."
"Ray," She begins, a bit alarmed before he defensively puts his hands up.
"Don't worry - I make sure they think I'm only speaking hypothetically of course."
"Right."
Kendra holds out the cotton candy back to Ray, but he refuses. "Keep that, you need it more than I do."
She grins. "Thanks. You know, I think one of my past selves worked in a carnival like this once. I want to say it was over at the petting zoo."
"Was what before or after your Rosie the Riveter days working as a welder?" He teases.
Kendra chuckles. "I'm not sure. The memories often get lumped together. Not that I've been having too much of them lately. Actually things have been awfully quiet in that area," she reveals, some concern hanging in her voice.
"Probably just one of the side effects of you having to adjust to a new timeline. I'm sure they'll come back in full force soon enough," Ray tries to assure her.
"I hope so. I'd hate to lose more than I already have."
"Maybe I'm just being optimistic, but I like to think whatever you lose from here on out is all up to you."
"If only things were that simple. I don't know if you've been paying attention, but I don't exactly have a greatest track record of keeping certain parts of my life under control that I should have."
Ray nods his head with a little smirk. "Fair enough."
Just then, two rowdy kids rush between them on the way to the carousel up ahead, knocking the cotton candy out of Kendra's hand.
"Great," Ray says, disgusted, before he turns to Kendra. "Wait right here, I'll get you another."
"No, Ray. It's OK, you don't have to. I didn't think I was going to finish the last one," she says.
"OK. How about a drink? Some soda or maybe a milkshake or I think I saw them selling some root beer floats down by the - " Ray stops himself as he realizes what he's doing. "Sorry. I guess I'm trying a little too hard. If you want to just go back to our place now, I wouldn't blame you."
"No, no. Like I said before, I appreciate what you're trying to do for me," Kendra earnestly tells him. "Hey, you know what, a soda doesn't sound like the worst thing in the world right now."
"Alright," Ray says as he digs into his pockets for some loose change. But as he does so, he accidentally pulls out his A.T.O.M. suit.
Kendra reaches out and takes it from him, surprised. "Your A.T.O.M. suit? What are you doing with it? I thought you stopped carrying it around weeks ago," she says.
Ray looks a little bit embarrassed. "Yeah, that. I started carrying it around again the day after Sara left. You can call it a coping mechanism of sorts. With her gone, we're one person short and I guess I felt compelled to compensate for her being gone. Not feel so defenseless," he admits as he takes it back and puts it back in his pocket.
Now Kendra is the one extending sympathy towards him as she puts her hand on his arm. "Ray."
He gives her a halfhearted smile as he pulls a quarter from his pocket. "Be right back."
She watches as he heads off to get them a soda. Around her, a large influx of people make their way past her. Wanting to get out of the way, she looks around and sees an isolated area nearby.
A few minutes later, Ray returns to where he left Kendra but realizes she is no longer there. He glances around until he eventually spots her, leaning against the side of one of the booths across the walkway.
He slowly makes his way over. "I thought you'd flown on off me for a second there." Ray jokes as joins her against the booth.
Kendra appears lost in her thoughts. Ray is about to speak up again when she suddenly turns to him. "You think she's OK?"
"Who, Sara? Kendra, if any one of us could make it all on their own in a different time period, it's Sara Lance. In fact, in her own way she's probably doing better off than we are."
"Even so, she really has no one she knows now - no one to talk to. I can't imagine what that must be like."
"Look, Sara may have left us, but we're still here for her. She knows exactly where to find us at any time. It's only a matter of whether she wants to," Ray says as he gazes out to the horizon. It's almost an attempt to assure both her and himself.
Kendra lets off a long sigh. "I hope you're right. I would hate for that been the last we've ever seen of her. Or us for that matter."
Ray suddenly turns to her. "What do you mean?"
"It's just that I can't help but feel a little bit worried about us. I mean, we were coming along just fine before Sara left. Then she did and - part of it is because I was upset about her - but what if we also disconnected because now we're finally alone and things between us weren't as strong we thought they were." As she says this, Kendra walks in front of Ray. "We only got together because of the team - what if we were only able to stay together because of them? Now that we're all on our own, I've been afraid what that could spell for us in the future."
Ray turns his head away from Kendra as he realizes what has been really keeping her away from him this past week. It takes him a while to consider things - a little longer than Kendra expects.
"Ray?" Kendra calls him so weakly and fragily, though it's enough to bring him back to her.
"Well that could certainly be a possibility," he finally says. "In fact, I've been thinking a lot about that recently."
Kendra looks taken aback. "Ray - " she begins until he stops her again.
"Wait, just wait. I know that since Sara left, the two of us haven't been the same." He begins to close the distance between them. "But I also know that since then I haven't stopped thinking about you, or stopped being worried about you throughout all parts of my day, or stopped wanting to be this close to you again."
Kendra shakes her head, but in disbelief. "I haven't stopped thinking about you either."
"If you ask me, the way we've been feeling since she left isn't us drifting apart - it's us coming to terms with the fact that from now on - it's just us. And it's overwhelming and a little scary, I'll admit, but not in the way that it was when we realized we were left stranded in the 50's. It's a different kind of scary. Not unlike when we were first brought onto the mission, or, speaking more personally, when I first touched up off the ground in the A.T.O.M. suit."
He turns back to Kendra, who can't hide that smile on her face now, before he continues. "I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to where we go from here - together."
"You really mean that?" Kendra asks, taking a step closer herself.
"I do," Ray says curtly. Before he knows it, he finds himself leaning in to kiss Kendra, who's more than willing to accept.
It's their first kiss in a long time. And it's perhaps the first time since the day they were left behind that a kiss between them not only felt so real, but left both them so out of breath as they slowly begin to pull away.
"It really is just the two of us isn't it?" she asks.
"Yeah," Ray reiterates, a silly smile across his face.
While they both regain themselves, Kendra takes a glance to their left. "You know, I think I see the line to the Ferris wheel pretty empty. Maybe we could see our place from up there."
It came out of her mouth so casually - their place. The idea really resonated with both of them in a far more different way. And now, for the first time in a week, Kendra couldn't wait to go back.
"Probably. I bet I can find it first," Ray quips as they begin to make their way over.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," she retorts. "Maybe you forget, but I do have hawk vision."
"Please, you're talking to a guy who designed his own GPS system for his technology. I can probably find it from outer space." he teases back.
"I think I'll still take my hawk vision on that bet," she replies, without missing a beat.
"What exactly are you putting on this bet?"
"I don't know how about whoever loses, has to bring the other lunch for the next - "
As the two walk away, their voices begin to trail. Once again, a couple of kids rush through and nearly bump into them but this time are forced to make their way around them as the distance between Ray and Kendra is now closed.