They were in Rome, 1999. It was just after ten in the evening, when Leonard had been able to slip away from Damien Darhk, Eobard Thawne and now Malcolm Merlyn. He had made contact with Sara and Mick, and planned to meet up with them at the top of the Spanish Steps.
There were people everywhere but he didn't care, he could only think about Sara, and seeing her again. Leonard reached the top of the steps and looked around. It was hard to see faces in the crowd but he knew that she would be there. He heard his name and turned around to see Sara running toward him.
Mick had told Sara to go and meet Leonard by herself; the arsonist knew that she wanted some alone time with Leonard before bringing him back to the Waverider. She reached the meeting spot and looked through the crowd a couple of times before seeing him. She called out his name as she ran through the people to him.
Sara all but threw herself into his arms, wrapping hers around his neck.
"I can't believe it's really you," she mumbled against his neck. "I thought we'd lost you. I thought I'd lost you."
"I thought I'd never see you again," Leonard told her, breathing in her scent.
"Once I knew you were alive, that was never going to happen," Sara said pulling back to look up at him. "Come on, let's get out of here."
Sara led him through the city to a hotel, a small out of the way place down one of the back streets, nothing fancy.
"I thought we were going to the Waverider?" Leonard asked.
"We are, I just needed to grab some stuff I left here earlier," she explained.
She pushed the door to the room open and then closed it behind him. The bed was still unmade and the French doors to the terrace were open. Sara begun to pack up her things as Leonard moved around the room, taking it in.
When her bag was packed, Sara looked up to find Leonard standing by one of the French doors. She smiled as she made her way over to him, a month ago she wouldn't have believed this to be possible and yet here he was.
Sara wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her cheek against his back. She felt his hand join hers and she sighed, content to finally be back with him. This was everything she didn't know she wanted until the moment she had lost him.
As if reading her mind, Leonard pulled away from her and turned to face her before he leaned down to captured her lips with his own. Sara returned the kiss, gripping the collar of his jacket and pulling him closer, as Leonard walked her backward toward the bed. She tumbled down onto the unmade bed when her thighs hit the mattress and laughed when she collapsed, pulling him down on top of her.
Sara stared up at him as she pushed his jacket from his shoulders and then pulled his shirt over his head. Leonard leaned down and kissed her again and Sara felt Leonard's hands pushing up her top and she broke the kiss to pull it off, throwing it to the floor.
When Sara woke up she rolled onto her side and studied Leonard as he slept. She still couldn't believe that he was alive, that he was here.
"What are you staring at?" Leonard asked, his eyes still closed.
"How do you know I was staring?" Sara asked.
"I just do," Leonard replied, as he opened his eyes and then pulled her to him.
Sara rested her head on his shoulder and traced her fingers across the scars on his chest, glad that she had thought to book the room for an extra day, just in case.
"We should probably head back to the team, I know there are a couple of people who are looking forward to seeing you."
"It's mostly Ray though isn't it?" Leonard asked and Sara laughed at his comment.
"I'd say Mick, but you are probably right," she said as she moved to sit on the edge of the bed.
"One more thing," Leonard said.
"What?" Sara asked, as she turned to look over her shoulder at him.
"The Queen of France, really?"
Sara threw a pillow at Leonard shaking her head. "Get dressed."
Leonard woke up with a start, it was a dream, it had been a dream. He sighed and looked at his watch, 24 hours and it wouldn't just be a dream. After he had finally made contact with Sara and the rest of the team a month before, they had come up with a plan to not only get him back but how to destroy the Legion of Doom for good. Twenty-four hours, that's all that was left.
ONE MONTH EARLIER
"MICK!" she yelled running from the room. "We have a problem!"
"Sara, we need to go!"
"LEONARD'S ALIVE!" she exclaimed, holding up her phone.
The whole team froze and Mick made his way over to her and took the phone off her to look at the screen.
"What did he say?" Mick asked.
"I don't know," Sara said, stealing the phone back from Mick. "I haven't listened to it yet."
"Don't you think you should?" Ray said.
"Right, Miss Lance, you stay here and listen to that message. The rest of us will take the jump ship and retrieve what we need and be back," Stein said.
"You're benching me?" Sara asked, annoyed.
"You are not going to be any use to us while you are thinking about Mr. Snart."
Sara glared at Martin. As the rest of the team headed to the jump ship, she turned on her heel and headed back to her room.
She sat on her bed and took a breath, internally praying that it was in fact him and not someone else as she pressed play.
The sound of his voice brought tears to her eyes and Sara covered her mouth in shock as she listened to him. She hated the fact that he thought she had given up on him. She knew that she should wait for Mick to get back but Sara couldn't help herself as she hit the call button.
"Sara?" Leonard's voice came down the line after only one ring.
"Hey," she whispered out as tears rolled down her cheeks. "Are you okay?"
"I'm good, I'd love to get out of here but I'm surviving. How are you?"
"I'm okay, better now I'm talking to you. I can't believe that you're alive, we all thought, well you know," Sara said, as she wiped the tears from her cheeks.
"I know, and I'm sorry I couldn't answer."
"It's okay, I heard your messages, how do we get you out of there?"
"I'm not sure yet, I've been trying to come up with a plan but nothing seems to work because we move around so much," Leonard said, explaining the situation to Sara.
"We will come up with something, try and find out as much about their plan as you can and text me or call me when you can and we will work it out. I promise we will get you out of there," Sara said.
"I have to go, but I'll be in touch soon. Tell Mick-"
"You miss him," Sara interrupted with a laugh.
"I miss you, but tell Mick whatever. I'll talk to you soon, Sara."
"I miss you, too," Sara whispered, but he was already gone.
PRESENT TIME
Over the next few weeks he had spoken to Sara a number of times, as well as Mick and the rest of the team. He played the part that needed to be played, to elude The Legion of Doom as to what his personal agenda was.
The plan was foolproof. When Thawne told him they needed his abilities to steal something in Rome, he knew that this was his window. He contacted Sara and they arranged a meeting place, and tomorrow everything would fall into place.
Leonard woke up early the next day. He stored his phone in his boot and headed out, just like both teams had planned. He cased the jewelry store for a while, as was Thawne's instruction, and then headed through the city to where he was meeting Sara.
The streets were quiet, almost too quiet, but he liked it that way. He reached the top of the steps, at the meeting place and leaned against a wall to wait. After a couple of minutes he saw Sara turn around the corner and head toward him.
An arrow flew through the air between them and Leonard looked to see Merlyn all suited up, bow in hand.
"You thought we didn't know where you were going?" the Dark Archer asked.
"He's not here alone," Sara yelled from where she was standing.
"Neither am I," Merlyn said.
It all happened so fast. Leonard went to move to toward Sara but as he did, Darhk held him in place and Sara's body dropped to the ground as Thawne ripped out her heart.
"NOOOOOOOO," Leonard screamed, ask Darhk finally let him go and he raced toward Sara's body.
"Nobody crosses us Cold!" Thawne exclaimed, as Mick and Ray came around the corner, followed by the rest of the team and a battle broke out.
"So let me get this straight, today we got Snart back, only to lose Sara forever?" Ray asked through his tears.
"It doesn't seem fair," Jax said. "Where is Snart anyway?"
"Medbay, with Sara," Mick answered gruffly. "Don't bother him."
Leonard had spent the last hour trying to bargain with Gideon for Sara's life, but there was nothing the AI could do. He held her hand to his forehead as he sat in a chair next to her.
"I guess we weren't meant to have forever, just an almost," Leonard whispered, as the realization that for all their conversations of you and me, that's all it would ever be.