I hope you guys aren't tired of all the Rory stuff, but I felt inspired. This will be the last one from Only a Matter of Time.
He'd known exactly what was going to happen. Sara knew it too, and they'd both been counting down the days until it did.
June 26th, 2028, the day Rory had been kidnapped by the Pilgrim. They'd asked Rip years ago if there was anything they could do to prevent it, but he said no. Some things are just meant to happen.
That day, Sara kept a few more throwing stars in her pockets than usual and her collapsed batons were tucked in her boots. Leonard kept a close eye on Rory, not letting her out of his sight for more than a minute or two.
They'd assumed they'd get to fight back, do something to prevent Rory from getting any more hurt then she had to.
They were wrong.
They'd been sitting on the driveway. Rory was sprawled out on the asphalt with a stick of pink chalk in her hand. Sara was doodling with the dark purple and even Leonard had picked up the white chalk and was absentmindedly drawing swirls on the pavement. They'd both decided that seven was their favorite age so far, although they'd said that about every year of Rory's life. She'd just finished first grade and both Leonard and Sara were reveling in not having to share their daughter with anybody else for the next eight weeks.
They were caught up in listening to Rory discuss her day in her little-girl way that they'd fallen in love with.
"…Mick scared some of other ladies at my gymnastics class because he said they aren't nice about stuff and then…"
Leonard winced and Sara shot him a Look. Rory, now old enough to have opinions and the ability to state them, was not popular among other kids' parents. She was like Sara: headstrong, fiery, and opinionated. None of those things were deemed suitable traits for a seven year old, so they'd begun to criticize her every move. In gymnastics, it was the way she only half-paid attention. It was the way she got bored halfway through an activity and had to be corralled back towards the rest of the class. It was the way she corrected the other kids when they were wrong. And especially, it was that despite all of this, she was still a good gymnast. She didn't have to diligently pay attention to the instructor to know what she was doing and that infuriated the other mothers who had to watch their son or daughter attempt a backwards roll while Rory was doing handstands.
Rory always heard everything that was said about her; she wasn't stupid and they weren't subtle, but truthfully, she didn't care. She believed that what Sara said was true: they didn't not like her, she just made them uncomfortable, and Rory liked having that effect on people.
Usually, Sara and Leonard ignored them, knowing that it wasn't worth their time to involve themselves with the frivolous activity of berating seven year olds, but Mick clearly wasn't in the mood to listen to it. Leonard wasn't sure what he did to the women at Rory's gymnastics class, but he also didn't want to know.
"…and then we got ice-cream and gummy worms and then -"
Rory let out a shriek and Leonard's head snapped up just in time to see a black cape whirling into nothingness.
Both Leonard and Sara knew what was happening. They knew that the black cape belonged to the Pilgrim. They knew she was taking Rory to 2111, where she'd be found by their younger selves. They knew Rory would be very well taken care of.
It didn't matter. It didn't stop the agonized scream that came from Sara and tore through Leonard like an earthquake.
He sprang to his feet to see Sara tearing towards the spot where Rory had disappeared. He grabbed her arms and held her still.
"Sara!" He held her tighter.
"She took her! Sara growled and Leonard could see anger glittering in her eyes "Rory didn't do anything wrong and she took her anyway. I'm gonna make that bitch pay."
"We do. Nine-years-ago-us does." He dragged Sara back into the house, reminded of all the times he'd dragged her off of the battlefield back when they'd been fighting Savage on the Waverider. Once inside, he pushed her onto the couch, holding her shoulders down. "They have eight hours. She'll be back in eight hours."
"I'm gonna kill Rip if she's not back in one piece."
"I'll let you, but you'll have to wait."
Sara spent the majority of the eight hours Rory was gone sitting by the window looking onto the road. She ignored Leonard's comments that Rory wouldn't return any sooner just because she wanted her to; she shot him a glare and he left her to her business.
Around noon, he brought Sara a grilled tomato and cheese sandwich and sat in an adjacent chair.
"Any developments?" he asked, pushing the plate towards her.
Sara rolled her eyes. Rather than answer his question, she leaned back in her chair and stared speculatively out the window as she took a bite out of her sandwich.
"Do you remember the day she was on the Waverider?" Sara asked after she swallowed.
"For the most part. Why?"
"I've just been thinking about it a lot, trying to piece together what we're doing right now."
Leonard glanced at the digital clock in the microwave. "Well, she's been with them for four hours, so we've probably just gone to see her for the first time."
"She was asleep, and you made some wiseass comment about something. I don't remember."
"Well I was uncomfortable. What else was I going to do?"
"I dunno." Sara replied, finishing off one half of the sandwich. "The thing I remember most was when we dropped her off and I just remembered how happy we looked."
"Yeah. I remember that too."
"It kind of scared me, actually, and it made what Rip said - about how if we screwed up too much, we wouldn't have a future - make sense."
"We'll I guess we didn't screw up too badly."
Sara shook her head. She was quiet for a moment until she said, "I also remember your face when you found out you had a kid. I don't think I've ever seen you look so scared in the entire time I've known you."
"I was afraid I'd turned into my dad." Leonard stared out the window, his eyes focusing on the spot on the road where Rip's car would appear. "Because we found her all bruised and bloody."
"I remember you telling me that. You had nothing to be scared of though."
"Yeah, look at us. We're awaiting the arrival of our daughter who's been kidnapped and taken through time by a deranged assassin. Someone give us the award for parents of the year."
Sara rolled her eyes again. "That's only a little bit our fault, and she's fine, remember?"
"Then why are you sitting here?"
"Touché" She, once again, avoided answering his question.
Leonard stood, giving up. "Well I'll leave you to it then."
Funnily enough, it was actually Leonard who answered the door when Rip and Rory arrived. Sara had fallen asleep at around two, and Leonard nudged her arm to rouse her as he walked past her chair.
He undid the latch on the front door and pulled it open.
"Rip Hunter." he said, upon seeing who stood on his doorstep. "It's been a while."
"I'm sure it has." Rip replied. "I believe I have something that belongs to you."
He held out Rory, who was unconscious in his arms, her head lolling to the side. Leonard took Rory, balancing her on his hip and letting her head fall onto his shoulder. He reached out a free arm and shook Rip's hand.
"So how's the mission going?" Leonard asked.
Rip simply let out a long sigh.
Sara finally walked up to the doorway.
"Hey, Hunter." She stepped forwards and hugged Rip before standing next to Leonard. He wrapped an arm around her waist and Sara leaned into his side.
"So how are our past selves doing?" Sara asked. Her hand traveled up to Rory, her fingers absentmindedly combing through her long blonde hair.
"I think this little adventure has made them sufficiently uncomfortable. I don't see them doing anything obtusely valiant any time soon."
Out of the corner of his eyes, Leonard could just see the black car that Rip and Rory came in. If he turned his head just a bit to the left, he could have seen his past self sitting in the passenger seat and it took almost all of his mental capacity to not do so.
He still remembered how he'd felt. He'd been more afraid in that moment than any other time that day. It was the first time he'd really seen all he had to lose. He could no longer be in the missions for himself. He had a future to protect.
"I'd better get going." Rip continued. "We've got a world to save."
Rip waved one last time as he walked back down the porch steps. Leonard followed Sara back into the house, closing the front door behind them.
"Poor guy." Leonard said. "He's got a lot coming to him."
Sara said nothing, just stretched out her arms towards Rory. Leonard handed her over and Sara clutched her daughter to her chest, one hand holding her tightly, the other going up to her head. She buried her face in Rory's hair and Leonard heard her inhale deeply.
"She's okay." Leonard said. He stepped forwards wrapped his arms around Sara, Rory sandwiched between them.
"Yeah. We took good care of her."
"Yeah, we did."
I hope you all liked this. This was the last pre-written Captain Canary fic I have, so I don't know how much longer it will be until I next publish something, but I promise it won't be long.