Author's Note: Laurel is still alive in this story because in my bubble of happiness and unicorns, my little birdie didn't die. Nope. Didn't happen.
"We're back in 2016 now." Leonard said, feeling the Waverider touch the ground. "Where do you want to go first."
"Home." Sara said. She stepped to Leonard and hugged him, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her cheek to his chest. Leonard locked his arms around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. "I wanna see my dad and my sister."
"They've never met me, have they? This will be interesting."
"I actually have one teensy tiny little favor to ask."
"Yeah, and what might that be." Leonard smirked, preparing himself for who knows what. Sara tipped her head up, placing her chin on his chest.
"Can we maybe not tell my dad about us?"
"Why not? We've been married for almost two years."
"I know that," Sara smiled, "But for him, I've only been gone a couple days. I think it might come as a bit of a shock. I want to tell him, but I want to ease him into it."
"Whatever you need, but you're meeting Lisa next and I'm telling her."
"Okay." Sara tilted her head back down, returning her cheek to where it had been before she'd moved. Leonard held her tighter against him and they stood like that for a few moments until they heard footsteps behind them. Sara stepped away to see Rip and the rest of the team walking towards them.
"Are you ready to go home." Rip said.
"Ready as I'll ever be." Sara replied.
"Good, because we've reached Star City 2016. Before we all go our separate ways, I'd like to say goodbye and thank you. I couldn't have done what we did alone and for that I am very grateful."
"It was no trouble at all." Stein replied nobly.
"Yeah, we only almost died a couple dozen times." Jax added.
"But it was worth it." Kendra finished, raising one eyebrow and smiling at Jax.
"If there's ever any problems with the Time Masters, give us a call." Ray said.
Soon after, there was a round of handshakes and hugs that three years ago would have made both Leonard and Sara a bit uncomfortable, but now didn't faze them at all, and then Rip and the Waverider were gone.
"It's weird," Sara said as she and Leonard began to walk towards Star City, "I think I'll miss him."
"I won't." he replied. Sara simply rolled her eyes.
She knew she'd see him again. Maybe tomorrow, maybe ten years from now, but someday Rip would need the special talents of a crook and an assassin and they would both happily accept.
"Hey, we still have some other stuff to talk about too." she said.
"Like what?" Leonard asked, draping an arm around her waist and shortening his stride to match her own.
"Where do we go from here?"
"Where do you want to go? Is vigilante work not calling you anymore?"
"I don't think so, but I also definitely don't want to have some boring office-y job. I don't really know what I want yet. What about you? Ready to hang up the old cold gun?"
"Perhaps." Leonard replied. "But I wouldn't know where to go next."
"I think I know where to start."
"Where?"
"Central City. I'm done with Star City. There's so much violence and darkness and we've had too much of that. Besides, my mom's in Central City, so's Lisa."
"Sounds like a plan." Leonard smiled.
"Sara?" Laurel exclaimed, opening the front door. Sara and Leonard had finally reached Quentin Lance's home. "What are you doing here?"
"I was just going to ask the same of you?" Sara stepped into her father's apartment, pulling Leonard by the hand with her. "What are you doing here?"
"I was going to the break the news to dad about your little expedition through time, but it looks like I don't have to. What made you change your mind?"
"I didn't. I've been gone for more than three years. We just got back today."
Laurel's eyes widened. "Three years? Wow. I assume you succeeded in your conquest to defeat the immortal guy."
"Yup." Sara replied.
At that point, Laurel noticed Leonard.
"Sara, who's this?"
"This is Leonard Snart. He was on the team with me."
"And?" Laurel asked, clearly not satisfied with the answer she'd received.
Sara shrugged. "We're trying to figure out where to go from here. It's hard to decide what to do next when you've already saved the world. Basically anywhere from here is a step backwards." Sara smiled at herself, but was really only half joking. "I thought we both deserved a home-cooked meal before we keep moving."
Laurel took notice her sister's use of the term "we" but decided against pressing her any further on the subject because just then their father walked into the room.
"Laurel, who's at the - oh, Sara, it's you."
"Daddy!" Sara exclaimed. She hurried over to him and hugged him tightly. She hadn't seen him in three years. "I missed you."
"Sara, honey, I saw you last Tuesday."
"It's been a bit longer than that for me, dad."
"What are you talking about? Laurel, do you know what she's talking about?" At that point, he saw Leonard standing in the doorway. "Who's this? Can someone tell me what's happening?"
"Daddy," Sara stepped away from her father and pulled Leonard a bit closer to him. "This is Leonard Snart."
"Leonard Snart." Quentin shook his hand with a puzzled expression on his face. "Why does that name ring a bell?"
"He was on a mission with me." Sara explained quickly, attempting to derail her father's train of thought before he realized why he recognized Leonard's name. "We just finished."
"That was a quick mission."
"Not exactly." Sara answered. "Why don't we sit down."
They all went to the dining room table. Leonard situated himself next to Sara, attempting to hide his mild discomfort at the situation at hand. He'd forgotten in his time on the Waverider that in the present day, he's known as a criminal, a crook. To them, he was not the legend that his most important people knew him as. He was just a bad guy, and that isn't exactly the rep he wanted to have when meeting his wife's family for the first time.
He thought he'd feel far more comfortable if he was able to be closer to Sara, perhaps but his hand on her knee or on her own hand, but he knew that he had to respect her wishes, and if she wasn't ready to tell her family about them, that was okay.
It did, however, make him reflect how far he'd come in just a few years. Back at the beginning of the mission, when it had really just been him and Mick for the first few weeks, he'd rejected any and all types of human contact, shrinking away like a turtle into his shell. Now, the reverse was happening. Interesting.
"So tell me about this mission." Quentin said.
"Well, first of all, I was kind of gone for a little longer than a few days. I've been away for almost three-and-a-half years."
"What?" Quentin interrupted. "How's that even possible. You were over here less than a week ago."
"Yeah, I know that." Sara replied, although truthfully, she didn't. She had vague memories of what could possibly be the day her father was talking about, but it was easier to just agree with him. He'd have enough trouble grappling with the basics of the mission anyway. "But when I left, I didn't really go to a specific place on Earth, I went to a specific place in time."
"Sara, are you trying to tell me that you time traveled. How is that even possible?"
"I think you should stop asking that question about the stuff she gets up to, dad." Laurel cut in, smirking.
"Anyway," Sara said heavily, rolling her eyes in the direction of her sister. "We worked with a bunch of people to defeat this guy Vandal Savage, who was supposed to take over the world about two hundred years from now. But neither of you will remember him because we basically completely deleted his existence."
"You saved the future?" Quentin asked. He leaned back in his chair, impressed with his daughter. He turned slightly to look at Leonard. "And you helped?"
"That I did." Leonard replied, unsure of what else to say.
"Well good for you. Both of you."
They all made small talk for another half an hour or so until Quentin's phone beeped. He looked down at the screen, sighed, and stood up.
"I'm sorry I gotta leave like this, but they need me down at the station. Welcome home Sara and nice to meet you, Leonard."
"Same to you, Mr. Lance." Leonard replied.
Then Quentin was gone, and it was just Leonard, Sara, and Laurel. Leonard was distracted for a moment, suddenly having the thought that the reason for Quentin's quick departure down to the police station might just have been Mick. Leonard had let him go off on his own for their first day back. He wasn't sure that one mysterious, slightly intimidating-looking man at the Lance's would fly over well, never mind two. He didn't ask Mick what his plan was, both for that night and in general, mostly because he knew he wouldn't get a straight answer, but he couldn't help but worry.
"So," Laurel began, snapping Leonard back to the present. "Sara, do you have anything else you'd like to mention or should I just ask."
Leonard followed Laurel's gaze down to Sara's hands, where she was twisting the silver band around her ring finger. Sara suddenly realized what she was doing and quickly dropped her hands into her lap before letting out a defeated sigh. She looked up at Leonard.
"Well that lasted, what, forty five minutes?"
"I was going to say thirty, but sure lets go with your answer."
"Well this is certainly unexpected." Laurel said, looking between Leonard and Sara. "When did this happen?"
"Two years ago?" Sara shrugged. Leonard nodded his agreement.
"And you didn't even invite me?" Sara hoped that Laurel was joking.
"We were traveling through time and space, Laurel. We couldn't exactly swing back to 2016 to grab some extra guests."
"Well do you at least have pictures?"
Sara thought for a moment, then dug her phone out of her pocket, tapped at the screen for a few moments before handing it over to her sister.
Laurel wasn't entirely sure what she was looking at for a moment. It didn't really look like a wedding at all. First of all, they were standing somewhere that looked like the inside of the Death Star. Secondly, nobody in the picture looked like they were attending a wedding. Sara was dressed in her normal everyday attire, as was Leonard, as far as Laurel could tell. She recognized a few other people in the picture, Ray in particular stood out, and she recognized Kendra as well, but otherwise, the faces were unfamiliar.
Laurel looked up from the phone and chuckled at her sister.
"You don't know the definition of conventional, do you?"
"Nope." Sara smiled impishly.
"Well," Laurel said, unsure where to go from there. "Are you happy."
"Yeah." Sara smiled, looking up at Leonard and then back to her sister.
"Good." Laurel then turned to Leonard. "You better take care of my sister."
"I don't think that'll be necessary. She does a pretty damn good job of that herself."
Laurel raised her eyebrows, looking very hard into Leonard's face. Finally, she said, "Good answer."
"Are you done?" Sara asked. "I'm starving. Small warning, the food in the future sucks."
This is the first of a 5-chapter fic. In each one, Len and Sara will tell a different person/group of people *winkwink*. So stayed tuned for the next installments!