Leo Snart looked up from his book and dropped his feet to the floor, startled at the pounding on the door.
"Leo! Are you in there, man? Open up!"
"Come on in, Jax. What's the trouble?"
The younger man was out of breath and wild-eyed. "You gotta come, Leo! We need your help!"
"Of course I'll come, but you need to calm down and take a deep breath before you give yourself a heart attack."
"There ain't no time! You gotta come right now!"
"Jax, I'll help in any way I can, but you really need to slow down and tell me what's going on." He laid a gentle hand on the younger man's shoulder. "Come on, Jax. Deep breath. In and out."
"Man, you really are different," Jax muttered. He did, however, bend over and attempt to regulate his breathing.
"Better?" Leo asked calmly. "OK. Tell me what you need."
"Damien Darhk put some kinda whammy on Sara."
Leo raised an eyebrow at that, and Jax snorted before continuing.
"OK, fine. That Constantine guy used all sorts of words I don't understand, but the gist of it is, Sara is inside her mind, watching everyone she cares about die. Those of us that are here, we can talk her through it -"
"She responds to your voices?" Leo asked curiously.
Jax nodded. "The problem is people who aren't here any more - like her sister. It's like she's - I dunno - trying to fight death for them, and Gideon says it's putting too much strain on her heart."
"Well, that certainly sounds like Sara. But I don't understand how you think I can help."
Jax stared him straight in the eye. "We need you to pretend that you're our Snart, and talk to her."
"Jax." Leo paused, clear blue eyes filled with a very un-Captain Cold-like pain and uncertainty. "I don't see how that will help. I'm not him."
"I know. But you sound like him."
"What about having Gideon play a recording of your Leonard's voice?"
"We tried that with Martin. It didn't work so well. Please, I'm begging you…you gotta try."
"Jax, you don't have to beg. Of course I'll try."
The scene in the medbay was tightly controlled chaos. Sara was on one of the medical chairs, her head tossing from side to side.
"Come on, Blondie!" Mick exhorted, as he tried to restrain her without hurting her. "Ya gotta fight your way outta there. There's an evil sorcerer in need of a good ass-kicking."
"Mr. Rory," Gideon chided, sounding as exasperated as possible for an artificial intelligence, "such suggestions are counterproductive. We need to calm the captain. Her body is reacting as though she is engaged in a physical fight, and the strain will kill her if it continues much longer."
Mick growled in frustration and turned away.
"Gideon," Leo asked calmly, "how can I help?"
"Captain Lance appears to be reliving the final moments of the Leonard Snart from Earth Prime. In past episodes, she has responded to the voice of the person she is trying to save in her dream state."
"I'm not him, though," Leo reminded them.
"No, but your voice is very similar. Hopefully, it will be enough to ease the captain past this episode."
"All right. Any suggested topics?"
"Cards, booze, and bar fights," Mick suggested.
Leo just raised an eyebrow at that.
"And can you change your voice a little?" Jax suggested.
"Seriously? I thought you needed me to sound like him?"
"You're too happy," Mick supplied.
"Snart - our Snart - was kinda snarky. Can you do that?" Jax asked.
"Snarky. Cards and booze." He closed his eyes for a moment, then cleared his throat and stepped over to the medical chair Sara was thrashing around on.
"Hello, Sara."
He glanced at Jax, who gave him a thumbs up on the voice.
"It doesn't sound like you're in a very nice place right now." He caught one of her flailing hands and held it in both his own. "Why don't you come with me? We can play a couple hands of cards, and I've got a great bottle of scotch."
Sara turned her face towards the sound of his voice. "You'll die if you stay here," she muttered.
"So let's not stay here," Leo coaxed. "We'll find a good place to play some cards -"
"At the foot of the steps, where everyone will trip over you," Mick suggested, sotto voce.
"- and if people can't watch where they're going, and trip over us, well, that's their problem."
"You cheat."
"Maaaaaybe. Never know if you don't come with me."
"Hafta get Mick out of here."
"OK. We can do that. I'll help you. We'll get Mick, and we'll all go find a not-so-nice bar and pick a fight. All you have to do is come with me."
"Too late…"
"Of course not," Leo soothed. He squeezed her hand. "All you have to do is follow my voice. Just…stay with me. Please?"
"Me and you?" Sara whispered hoarsely.
"Me and you," Leo agreed.
"The mission…"
"Let's get someplace safe, and then we can regroup, and talk about it."
"You didn't really mean it, did you?"
Leo looked to the others, who just shrugged, equally puzzled about what might be going through Sara's head. "I…no, of course not."
Sara stilled then, frowning.
Her eyes blinked open slowly.
Leo's expression relaxed into a warm grin. "There you are."
"Leo."
He nodded. "I'm sorry for the deception -"
"I'm not," Mick said pugnaciously.
"Me, neither," Jax agreed. "We almost lost you, when you were dreaming or whatever about your sister."
"We did what had to be done," Mick added. "Just like he woulda." He released his grip on her shoulders. "Come on, Jax…I hear a couple a beers calling our names."
Jax looked from Sara to Leo and nodded slowly.
Sara realized abruptly that Leo still held her hand and moved to pull it back. He held on.
"Do you want to talk about what just happened?" he asked gently.
"No," Sara replied, stubbornly. This time, she succeeded in reclaiming her hand. "I don't do feelings."
"I think you do. I think this whole mess just proved it. You have feelings - lots of them - you just don't want to talk about them."
"You say that like it's a bad thing."
"Damien Darhk nearly used all those feelings to kill you."
"Like I said."
"Whether you choose to admit it or not, you loved all those people you saw in your dream fiercely. And they loved you right back. Even if you could, would you really trade that away? Your sister. Martin. Him."
"Guess we'll never know," Sara said shakily.
"But we do. It was the sound of his voice that pulled you back from whatever the hell Darhk did to you. Out of all those people…it was him."
Sara thumped her head lightly against the chair, looking away from Leo. "Thank you for…helping. Now…"
She started to get up, causing many of the monitors to start beeping and Gideon to protest. Leo put a hand out to stop her, but she shrugged him off. "We need to go after Darhk. Where's John? Did we even finish the mission at all? Ray…"
"Sara. You can't just keep pushing your feelings aside."
"Sure I can."
The captain strode out of the room without a backward glance, showing no sign that she'd been battling demons in her own head only moments before. The monitors gave one more futile beep before quieting, but since Gideon didn't continue to protest, she was apparently well enough.
Leo watched her go.
"What did you mean, Sara?" he asked quietly, rhetorically. "Or shall I say, what did he mean?"
No one answered.