So I was talking with misscrazyfangirl321 on Tumblr about OTPs on different sides of glass and putting their hands up on it, and it ended up spinning into a conversation about Ray and Lily getting trapped in a med pod like Fitz and Simmons did in the S1 finale for Agents of SHIELD. It inspired a lot of tears, two moodboards, angsty afterthoughts, and for me to write this fic.
Takes place in the future for the Legends, just after they get Leonard back.
Ray blamed himself. He had thought Lily was right behind him when he had been running toward the escape pod of the futuristic plane. Only when Stein asked where his daughter was did Ray realize that he'd lost her while they were getting away from the time pirate who was chasing after them. So he doubled back to find her after telling Rip to get everyone else out if he didn't come back in three minutes.
He found Lily in one of the halls, her cheek bleeding and jacket torn at the sleeve. She'd almost hit him with a stolen rifle before realizing who it was. Together, they tried to make their way back, but the time pirates were blocking their way back. They took a detour, only to come face to face with more, including the leader who'd been trying to capture all of them. So they had turned back again and raced inside a room that appeared to be a small medical bay. Once inside, the two scientists could only hope they'd escaped their pursuers.
Those hopes were dashed when the sneering face of the leader appeared in the window at the front of it. He disappeared a moment later, and Lily reached over to grasp Ray's hand. The entire room shook then, and started moving away. Both ran over to the window to see the adversaries sneering at them and getting further away. The whole unit tipped backwards, sending Ray and Lily flying backwards to the other side. They hit the other side hard as supplies spilled out of their containers. Ray wrapped his arms around Lily to protect her the best he could.
The unit hit something with a muffled splash, knocking the duo around again. They slammed into something before unconsciousness smacked into them. Together, they slipped to the floor as the medical pod sank into the ocean outside.
Lily opened her eyes slowly. There was a plethora of medical supplies, from bandages to sealed packages of hypodermic needles, scattered across the floor. Actually, what was supposed to be the floor was to her right side. One of the walls was now the floor. Clearly the unit had turned a couple times as they fell. Lily brought a hand to her forehead, feeling crusted blood there in addition to the cut she'd gotten earlier on her cheek.
Sitting upright, she crawled over to the window of the pod. Dark blue water greeted her as she peered out. The unit appeared to have landed on a section of ocean floor. She sat there for a few minutes, analyzing how far down the unit had landed. Wherever they were at, she definitely couldn't see the surface. It was lucky that it seemed to be airtight at this sea level or she and Ray would be in bigger trouble.
Remembering she wasn't alone, Lily looked back to see Ray was lying on the ground. She stepped around the fallen supplies to get over to him. His eyes were closed and he didn't seem to be moving. Lily sat down quickly beside him, removing the helmet of his suit and placing her fingers against one of his pulse points. As soon as she felt his pulse, she let out a sigh of relief knowing he was still alive. He was only unconscious right now. Lily thought he looked pretty peaceful.
It took a few more minutes before he started to stir. Slowly, he opened his eyes and Lily watched as he slowly sat up.
"Lily?" he murmured, looking around the pod. "Are you okay?"
"Little banged up," she told him, absently brushing her hand against the blood on her forehead. "You?"
He scooted back up against the wall with a groan. "Like I went a couple rounds with the Green Arrow."
Lily grimaced a little. "Fun."
"Yeah, wouldn't recommend it," Ray said, his head turning to the window now. "Although I'm guessing that's the least of our problems right now."
He stood up and walked over to the window. Lily trailed behind him, taking a place on the other end of the window from him. Together, they stared up from their underwater prison. Lily refused to let herself think of it as a tomb. She was not going to die down here, not if she and Ray could help it. Besides, they could probably figure something out together in terms of escape.
"Got a plan?" she asked, looking over at him.
Ray let out a long breath. "Get out of here."
"I mean, specifically."
"Figure a way out that doesn't kill us for starters," Ray suggested.
"And then we need to swim who knows how far up to the surface," Lily added as she thought of what was waiting after they even got out. "After that, we'd have to survive with the bends until the others find us. We don't even know if they're looking though. And there's only enough air in here to last us so long if they are."
"They'll find us in time," Ray replied. "Your dad probably won't leave this time period until he finds you. He probably would have gone after you if I hadn't done it first."
"So you came looking for me?"
Ray nodded.
Lily crossed her arms. "It's my fault we're down here. If I hadn't gotten separated, you'd be safe."
"It's not your fault," he told her. "There were loads of time pirates on that plane. You couldn't help where they decided to pop out. If anything, I should have made sure you were behind me the whole time."
"How about we call it even and blame the jerk who got the pod pushed out the plane for our situation?"
Ray nodded. "Fair enough."
They were quiet for a few more minutes before Ray smiled.
"You know, I could probably find a way to transmit a signal upwards for Rip and the others to find us," he said. "I'd have to take apart my suit to do it, but it'd help us more. I'm not sure if it can hold up against the water depth we're at."
"And in the meantime, we can think of a plan," Lily said before pausing. "If there's a plan."
"There will be," Ray affirmed. "I won't let you die down here, Lily."
Ray set to work with Lily in taking apart his suit to create the transmitter. It was a little hard to have to destroy another ATOM suit, but Ray told himself this was for a better purpose. The parts of it were more useful to them than the suit itself at the moment. He and Lily managed to disassemble it quickly into the parts they needed effectively. They always did work well together when it came to these kinds of things. Sometimes, it felt like they were linked in a sort of way.
Once they had it up and running, the signal was weak, but it was going. Lily moved back to the window to watch the ocean outside of them. Ray joined her a moment later. Both on them were on a side of the window, staring out into the deep blue.
"Do you think we'll make it out?" Lily voiced suddenly, turning to him. She looked a little nervous now.
Ray shrugged. "I'm hoping so. If that signal gets through to the Waverider, then we've got a shot."
"That's something at least," the other scientist nodded, crossing her legs.
"It's enough for now."
A few more moments passed by before Lily spoke again. "Do you ever wonder what it's like?"
Ray looked up at her. "Death?"
Lily nodded.
He peered over at the remains of the ATOM suit before turning back to her. It was definitely a question Ray had been wondering about since they lost Snart at the Oculus. When they had gotten him back, he hadn't been too chatty in sharing details of what the experience had been like. Ray knew what she meant by the question, but he couldn't help but ponder the way to it as well.
"Probably depends on the way you go out," Ray told her. "I figure Sara was probably in pain when she died. I don't know if Snart even felt it. But I heard someone once said drowning's the most peaceful way to go. The water filling up your lungs probably isn't so much fun, but after that it's supposed to be pleasant."
"I'd rather die in my sleep," Lily said, scrunching up her face in her cute little way. "But what do you think happens after? Where do we go?"
Ray sighed. "I don't know. I'd guess it's what things are like before we're born."
Lily nodded. "You know the first law of thermodynamics?"
"Of course," Ray smiled. "No energy in the universe is created-"
"-and none is destroyed," Lily finished with a smile of her own. "Every bit of energy that makes us up inside and out goes on to become something else."
"They go out and can become a part of anything," Ray added, thinking of the world above them. "Become a fish, a snake, a fern, a microbe. Freeze in a glacier or burn in a supernova billions of year into the future. The parts that make us up now used to make up other things- good, evil, and everything in between. Particles that make you and me up might have once existed in the same being. When we die, they could go on to make up something else together again. That's just in this timeline though. There's all kind of other possibilities of what we could have been, what we could have become."
Lily snorted lightly. "I know I didn't always exist for my father, or you, or anyone on the Waverider. I wasn't part of your original timelines until Rip got everyone on the Waverider. Somehow, time travel took particles from beautiful things that would have gone to other places, and created me from them. If I die down here, or when I do, I'll go back to those particles. Maybe that's just time correcting an aberration on its own, or just the way that life is."
Ray swallowed a little as she said those words. He never liked when Lily talked about herself like that. She never did around her father, but sometimes it came out around the rest of the team.
"Time travel is complex," he told her. "And you don't realize how much you can change until you see it happen for yourself. But no matter what's happened, you exist, Lily. You're here, and you're a part of our lives. I think because you exist, the world's actually a bit of a better place."
She smiled again, looking reassured. "That's sweet, Ray."
"Kind of fitting that we're down here too," he added. "Life started down here on this Earth anyways. Right outside that glass, billions of years ago, it all began."
Lily nodded along with what he was saying before stopping. "Ray, the glass…"
"I'm glad it's held up," Ray said as she started to look closer at it. "Probably's pressure resistant or something."
"The pane might be," Lily shot a grin at him. "But if we find a way to weaken that seal, or destroy it altogether-"
"-then we have some way to get ourselves out of here," Ray realized, standing up with her. "Lily, you're brilliant! We're in a unit full of medical equipment. There's got to be something in here that can get that seal broken."
"Lots of somethings," Lily said. "Ray, we can get out!"
She leaped forward to hug him. Ray hugged her back. There would be a host of other problems waiting for them when they got out, but they had a way out of the pod now.
The two worked quickly together, knowing they needed enough oxygen to ignite the explosive they'd created with medical ethanol on the seal of the window. Lily felt renewed hope as they got closer and closer to blowing it inwards. Sure, her father and the other Legends would still need to find them once they got to the surface. But she and Ray had a better chance of making it out alive instead of running out of oxygen.
"Are you ready?" Lily asked, backing away from the window to where Ray was prepping the defibrillator.
"I am if you are," he told her. "Remember what's going to happen?"
"You press the power button, window blows in, and so does the water," Lily recited. "Which is going to be a journey in pain."
"It'll knock the wind right out of us," Ray agreed, holding up a small oxygen tank with a mask attached to it. "I found this digging through the stuff in here. It's nearly empty, but there's still a little oxygen left. I managed to rig it so it gives you one breath. It's going to force oxygen into your lungs, so you've got to hold onto it."
"Ray, that's one breath," Lily said. "There's two of us. We both need air."
"I know," Ray nodded. "There's only enough for one person, Lily, and it's going to be you."
"So we find another way for us both to breathe," she countered, crossing her arms.
He shook his head. "I've done the math, Lily. There's just barely enough for one person. It's not up for discussion. You need to take it."
"No, not if it means leaving you!" Lily snapped back.
"You've got to be the one to get out," Ray told her, looking at her with big, puppy dog eyes. "I wouldn't live with myself if you didn't."
Lily opened her mouth, trying to phrase what she needed to say. "And you think I could? Why are you doing this?"
"Because the world needs you more than me," Ray told her. "There's more people who care about you than people who care about me."
"You and I both know that's not true," Lily cried. "Why would you make me do this, Ray? Why do you want me to leave you?"
"Because I'd rather die than watch someone I love die again!"
Lily blinked and inhaled. Ray was still holding the oxygen tank out to her, eyes now cast towards the floor. She couldn't believe she had just heard what he'd said. Sure, she had feelings for him when she started to get to know him more on the Waverider. Lily had never thought that he returned them. Her previous relationships had never ended well, but Ray had been different from any guy she'd had feelings for before. Together, they just fit.
"You mean a lot to me, Lily," Ray continued, pressing the tank into her hands. "And I want you to-"
Lily cut him off by pulling him down into a hug. She buried her face in his shoulder, tears running down her face. Ray was telling her that she was going to be fine as she let out a sob. She didn't want to let go of him, not after knowing he cared about her too. Lifting her head, she kissed Ray, hoping by some miracle that it wouldn't be her last with him.
She untangled herself from Ray, still gripping the tank. He smiled at her, looking close to tears. Lily felt fear bubble up inside her chest as she glanced over at the defibrillator. Then Ray's hand shot out and hit the button to charge it. As soon as he did, a scream tore out of Lily.
A second passed before the window blew inwards and all the water started to rush inside. It did knock the air right out of her lungs, and she lost sight of Ray in the swirl of water that rushed into the pod. Lily held the mask to her face and pressed the switch. The air was forced into her as she saw Ray floating beside her. Grabbing him by his upper arm, she swam out of the pod and up towards the surface. With every stroke upwards, she hoped she could reach the surface in time.
Her lungs felt ready to burst as she finally made it up. She gasped in a lungful of air as she pulled Ray up beside her. His eyes were closed like they had been not long ago when he was unconscious in the med pod. Lily knew that he had been without oxygen much longer than she had since he'd given her the last remaining bit. If he was going to survive, he would need serious medical attention soon.
Treading water the best she could while keeping her and Ray's heads above the surface was no easy feat while scanning the skies for the Waverider or any sign of help. Suddenly, she caught sight of the timeship descending down towards her. Lily's head went under for a moment, but she resurfaced to see the door lowered and a hand outstretched towards her. The scientist held out the arm that wasn't clutching Ray to grasp it. She felt a firm grip on her hand before she was pulled with Ray from the water.
Everyone was shouting all around her. Someone lifted Ray away from her as they fell to the floor together. Looking up, Lily saw Leonard and Mick carrying him towards the staircase and probably up the med bay. Her father was helping her up, asking her if she was alright. Amaya was hovering nearby too. Gideon was saying something about her needing to get to the med bay too.
Before Lily blacked out, the last thing she thought about was whether or not she'd truly saved Ray.
I'll post fluffy Raily next time. Hopefully.
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