Note: This story picks up as soon as the team has left 2013 from Mick's visit to Leonard. They are on their way back to May 2016.
As the doors to his room close behind him and he makes his way down the hall, Ray can't help but feel 20 pounds heavier than he did when he first walked back onto the ship. He'd think that the thought that they had succeeded in killing Vandal Savage or the sight of Mick getting closure with Leonard would be enough to make him feel a little lighter. Not only that, but Kendra was back on the team, albeit with Carter. Though to him, Kendra back, in any manner, is all that matters. What comes next - he'll have to deal with later.
As these thoughts run through his head, he decides to make a quick stop at the pantry to pick up something light to eat. Ray wanders down the main hallway and nears the corner when he overhears something.
"What do you have to stay for? Savage is dead. I'm back here with you. You - we - are free to go your own way from them."
Ray suddenly stops in his tracks. It was Carter's voice - coming from Kendra's old room. He stays hidden around the corner as he listens in. He hears Kendra taking a huge sigh. "I know, Carter, it's all I ever wanted but I just - "
Inside Kendra's room, Carter stands up from his seat and moves closer to her. "Look, Kendra. As much as I'd like to, I don't feel like I belong on this team - on this ship." He looks around. "I only ask that you come with me and help me, in my recovery - in my re-adjustment to a time period I barely remember. And to make sense of memories I don't understand."
Kendra glances down, overwhelmed. "And I'd like nothing more than to help you do that, Carter. It's just - I'd be leaving the team. The group of people that's become so much more than I ever thought possible. And some even - even more than that."
In the hall, Ray flinches as he knows who she's referring to. He hears nothing but silence in the room for a few moments.
Back inside, Carter approaches Kendra even more. "I understand, Kendra. This is your choice. But as you have told me, I've helped you rediscover yourself countless times. All I ask is that you return the favor for me. Just this once." Kendra looks up at him, a look of sheer sorrow on her face as the implications of what he asks her rush to her mind.
In the hall, Ray can hear Kendra fighting back some emotions. He exercises every bit of restraint to not walk into the room. He listens for her reply. "I don't know, Carter. I need to think about it. I'll decide when we land, OK?" And with that, Ray backs away from the door and disappears down the hall.
In the pantry, Ray sits at the bar, looking down at the sandwich on his plate. He's yet to touch it. The conversation from Kendra's room is playing out too loudly in his head for him to do anything right now.
Suddenly, the pantry door opens for Mick. He casually makes his way over to the storage containers when he notices Ray out of the corner of his eye. "You think this piece of junk has any chicken on board by any chance?" He gets no response, or even acknowledgement, from Ray.
"What's the matter, we all out of cupcakes?" Mick teases as he sifts through the food.
"No offense, Mick, but I'd rather be alone right now," Ray says without looking up from his plate.
Mick smirks. "Oh, now look who wants to be alone." He turns to Ray for good now. In doing so, he immediately senses something more to his despondency. "What is it, haircut?"
Ray is quiet for a few moments until he finally looks up to him. "Kendra might be leaving. With Carter."
"And you know this how?"
"I overheard her and Carter discussing it just now. If she decides to, she's probably going to announce it to everyone as soon as we get back to 2016. Then - she's just going to leave. Back to who knows where." Ray is holding back more than a few emotions, Mick can tell.
"This can't come as too big a surprise to you if she chose to leave."
"Actually, it does. She shouldn't be leaving. She belongs on the Waverider. With the team. With - " Ray stops himself, but Mick knows where he was going. "You can't tell me you think otherwise."
"I don't. I agree. I think she belongs here with us. But that's not something for you to tell her. She has to realize it on her own."
Ray shakes his head. "Until it's too late and we're long gone. And who knows when the next time I see her will be, if ever."
"That's something you'll have to live with."
Ray is struggling to keep himself composed now. "Mick, you should have heard her talking it over. I know Kendra, and if ever I heard her be so unsure about something... If I just talked to her, maybe I could - "
"If her decision is to leave, sure or not, she doesn't need you making things worse than they are by confronting her about it. Not now, not when she's announcing it. So you would tell her what she needs to hear," Mick declares.
"Which is what, exactly? I just smile and say 'Well, I couldn't be happier for you two. Just like destiny wanted it to be. You know, the one you spent so long trying to overcome? By the way, where should I address the box of your things to?'" Ray shoves his plate aside in frustration. "No, I refuse to tell her anything but the truth. It's not how our relationship worked before and not how it works now, telling each other the truth."
"The relationship before that you broke off, you mean?"
Ray purses his lips as he holds himself back. He takes a deep, strained breath. "Yeah."
Mick digs into his pocket and pulls something out. "You see this?"
Ray looks up to see Mick holding out a silver ring. "Snart's ring?"
"Yes. I told you before he planted it on me before he exploded the Oculus. The same man who wore this was the same one who dropped me off in the middle of nowhere intending to kill me only to leave me to die, the same one who called to have me put down like a rabid dog after you guys captured me, and the same one who eventually died so that he could save my life." Mick glares to Ray as he puts the ring on the table. "My point being that her leaving now, wouldn't mean squat about you two - now or in the future."
"So, I'm just supposed to swallow my words and never tell her anything, hoping that someday things just work themselves out like they're supposed to?" Ray asks in dejection.
"I never said you couldn't ever tell her anything," Mick says coolly.
Ray looks at him, confused.
"Stand up," Mick orders.
"What for?"
Mick picks up Leonard's ring again and holds it in front of him. "I'm going to show you something."
As Rip exits the Waverider back onto 2016 soil, he takes in the sight of the entire team waiting on him. "A full compliment," Rip quips as he chuckles in disbelief. "To be honest, I had my doubts that all of you would be with me for a second go."
Carter glances to Kendra. "Well, actually - "
"We're not coming with you," Kendra joins in. Carter looks back at her, surprised at her decision but satisfied. Meanwhile at the other end of the line, the words feels like a dagger to Ray's chest, as he realizes the final decision she made. He can't mask his distress.
"With Savage gone, we wanna start fresh. See what happens," Carter informs them.
"I give it three months, top," Mick says with a smile, before he drops it and over to Ray, who has partially recovered.
Kendra steps forward. "Look, I just... I want to say thank you - to all of you." Jax nods his head as Kendra looks his way.
She suddenly turns her attention to the other end. "Ray I - "
"No. This is - it's meant to be. I wish both of you nothing but the best." It's all Ray can muster up. He and Kendra move in for an embrace. As they do so, Ray shares one more look with Mick, who gives nothing more than a stern expression. A silent warning.
Ray presses harder into Kendra as she holds her breath and waits for it. His plea to stay with him, his attempt to reason with her. But she hears nothing from him. Kendra closes her eyes, in both relief and pain, before they break away from each other.
Steadily, she begins to make her way back the other way before she turns to Sara. "Be safe."
"See you guys around," Carter tells them before he and Kendra turn around and set off.
Mick knows he has to break the mood - a diversion away from Ray, who everyone is undoubtedly eyeing in sympathy. "Every time they do that - I get hungry for chicken," he jokes.
And with that, Rip decided it time to take off before anybody else bowed it. "So, shall we?"
From beside the window, Kendra watches as the raindrops continued their barrage against the glass. Since the night, three nights ago now, that she departed the team with Carter, it has yet to stop pouring. She and Carter, with nowhere else to go, returned to the apartment they left behind before leaving for the mission. What welcomed them was an eviction notice on their front door for, naturally, failure to pay rent the past four months.
It seems like four months since she last saw the team - and even longer since she'd been with him. The thought of him in particular - of the way they left things - causes Kendra to bury her face even deeper into her legs.
Just then, Carter emerges from the other room and notices her. "What's the matter? Are not feeling well?" he asks.
Kendra sighs. "Oh, no. I'm - I'm just thinking about some things, that's all."
Carter nods. "Even so, I don't think you should be sitting so close to the window right now. You'll catch a cold." Kendra remains silent as she continues to look out.
Carter glances to the other side of the room to see Kendra's jacket. He fetches it and hands it to her. "Here, at least use this to keep you warm."
Kendra takes the jacket and wraps it over her arms. "Thanks." Carter nods before Kendra watches him leave.
She didn't want to raise issue with it but she really wasn't cold. In fact, she was nearly sweating.
Kendra spots a chair a few feet away and tosses the jacket over it. But as soon as she does, Kendra hears a clink on the floor. Startled, she looks around and catches sight of something shiny under the chair. She climbs off the window sill and bends down to pick it up. As she holds it closer, she realizes it is the engagement ring Ray gave to her. She's dumbfounded, given that she had returned it to him just before they reached the Vanishing Point.
Kendra figures that it fell out of one of her jacket pockets and digs her hand into both of them. In one of them, she feels a piece of paper. She pulls it out and slowly folds it open. In doing so, her expression slowly dissolves into one of agony and heartbreak. She puts her hand to her mouth in an effort to stifle some of the outpour of emotion, but it's fruitless.
On the paper, only one sentence: "You told me to come back to you. A promise is a promise."
She crumbles the paper in one hand and grasps the ring in the other as she leans back against the window, the sound of the pounding rain only barely masking the sounds of her crying.