Sequel to Mending Memories
Thank you to stillthewordgirl.
Sara used to joke about the bear watching them whenever they were together in Len's quarters. It was a gift from her, so he loved it, and it was always there - perched on top of the pillows, or lurking under the extra blankets.
It was there after that terrible day at the Vanishing Point, when Sara stumbled into his quarters and collapsed on his bunk. She laid down on Len's pillow and wrapped her arms around that stupid bear and cried all the tears she didn't want the others to see.
She awoke several hours later, eyes gummed shut with dried tears and her breathing rough and ragged. Her fingers were clutched tight into the bear, and she cursed softly when she realized that she'd ripped a seam slightly. Len's bear, and she'd broken it.
And…there was something there - a corner poking out from the seam. Sara sat up and rubbed her eyes. It was a bit of folded paper, tucked inside the bear. The bear that she'd given Len, that so far as she was aware, no one else knew about. She frowned and set about trying to wriggle the paper loose.
The door slid open. "Sara?"
"What is it, Mick?" she said tiredly.
"Hunter needs us."
Sara nodded and hopped down from the bunk. If Mick noticed the bear, he never mentioned it.
"Mama, mama! Mister Freezy Bear is broken!"
Sara smiled indulgently at the toddler with the mop of blonde curls, and the no-longer-quite-so-white bear she clutched in her tiny hands. She held out her arms and pulled her daughter into her lap.
"Come 'ere, baby. Let's see."
The bear was looking a bit grubby and loose at the seams, and…there was something poking out from a small hole…a corner of folded paper. Sara gasped, and her heart twisted painfully in her chest.
"Can you fix him, Mama?"
"Sure I can. Maybe even give him a bath."
"'Cuz Mister Freezy Bear is special?"
"That's right, baby." Sara cuddled her daughter close. "Daddy didn't have a lot of nice things when he was a little boy, so one day, I got Mister Freezy Bear for him."
"And then Daddy gived Mister Freezy Bear to me!"
"Because you're the most special person in the whole wide world."
Sara held her daughter as she yawned and slipped into slumber. Then she set about carefully removing the folded bit of paper from the bear. Her name was written in blue ink in very precise handwriting that she knew as well as her own. She carefully unfolded the paper that had been creased years before.
"I know it's you, Sara, because you're the only one who knows about this damn bear. I also know that if you've found this, that something has happened to me. It was only to be expected, with the life we lead. I never thought I'd think these words, let alone write them, but I wanted you to know that you are the best thing that ever happened to me, and that, however much time we had, it could never be enough.
"And in case I never had the guts to say it out loud -"
The voice inside Sara's head was joined by its genuine counterpart.
"I'm pretty sure I've been in love with you since that bar fight in 1975," Leonard Snart finished, smiling down at the two people he loved best in the world.