MEETING THE PARENTS (QUENTIN)
Disclaimer: All characters do not belong to me but to their respective creators. None of the events are canon, they are merely my take on what could happen or what could have happened behind the scenes.
"Remember, you are not to mention anything about what you saw happening to this city in the future," he said as he walked quickly to keep in pace with her. "Especially not about what you saw in 2046. That was a potential future that will probably never come to be, so there is really no reason for you to talk about—"
"Enough, Rip!" her voice was ripe with annoyance. "We have been over this many times. Brief summary. No details. I am not an idiot."
"I apologize," he said. "It's just that I have never done this before."
Sara Lance stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to look closely at the time master.
"Captain Rip Hunter," Sara's voice had a teasing tone. "Are you nervous about meeting my father?"
Rip shifted uncomfortably.
"Of course not," he mumbled. "I am merely concerned about his reaction to your news. After all, at this point in time, he is suffering from a heart condition."
"You are nervous!" she laughed. "I don't get it. You met him when he was taken by the Pilgrim. This is technically not the first time you will meet him."
"I met him at a time when all he knew was that an older version of his teenage daughter went off in my time-travelling spaceship to save the world," he explained. "This version of Quentin Lance has gone through the hell of losing you when he thought you drowned in the Pacific, experienced your tumultuous homecoming as a former member of the League of Assassins, the pain of your second death and the uncertainty of your resurrection, and then you went off to partake in a very dangerous mission to save the future. Top that all off with the death of your sister."
The last sentence quickly sobered her up.
"So, yes, I am a little bit nervous about meeting a father and telling him that I intend to take his only surviving daughter away, and that I am not entirely certain I will be able to bring her back," he said quietly.
"Well, don't tell him that way," she said with a small smile. Rip continued to frown. "You know, you didn't have to come with me to do this. I could have told them on my own."
"I couldn't let you do that," he shook his head. "If a daughter of mine ever decided to go off with a strange man in a time-travelling spaceship, I would prefer to get to meet the bastard. As a courtesy, you see."
"Right," she smirked. "Come on then, his apartment is right around the corner."
"Lead the way," he bowed.
She was about to turn away when she noticed a glint of light from under his coat.
"What is that?" she asked as she stepped closer to him. She had her hands under his coat before he could even see what she was looking at.
"Wha—"
She snatched the weapon from its holster and waved it in front of his face angrily.
"What the hell, Rip? You brought a weapon?" she exclaimed.
"It's a stun gun," he disputed. "It's the same one I used on you when I kidnapped… er, recruited you."
"Were you planning on using this on my dad?"
"It was just a precaution," he started. She wasn't about to let him finish.
"What?" she was spitting mad. "Were you going to kidnap him if he said 'no'?"
"Of course not," he sputtered. "I thought that just in case you revealed too much of the future, I could bring them into the Waverider and administer some short term memory altering pills."
"Wow," she sneered. "Thank you so much for your trust in me."
She shoved the stun gun at his chest and walked angrily away from him.
"Sara!" he called out as he ran after her. He grabbed her shoulder as he reached her. The look she gave him as she turned to face him should have killed him on the spot.
"I'm sorry, I do trust you," he said quickly. "I trust you with my life. I would not ask you to come with me if I didn't. But, you have to admit that being around your family makes you emotional. I just couldn't risk the timeline for your emotions."
Her eyes narrowed. Rip quickly concluded that he said the exact wrong thing.
"Here," he pushed the stun gun into her hands. "Take it. I am trusting you to tell them anything you want. I will not interfere by altering their memories, or by any means. You are in complete control of this meeting."
Sara looked at the device in her hands and nodded slowly. "Fine," she said as she pocketed the stun gun. She gestured to the door next to her. "This is my father's apartment."
"Ready?" she asked him as she stood poised to knock. He swallowed visibly and nodded.
The door opened within a minute of her three short knocks. Captain Quentin Lance himself answered the door.
"Daddy," Sara greeted him enthusiastically with a hug. Her father returned her hug with equal exuberance. She stepped aside to introduce the man standing behind her. "Dad, this is Rip—"
Her introduction was cut short as Captain Lance drew back his fist and landed a square punch on Rip Hunter's unsuspecting jaw. Rip fell back against the wall behind him.
"Dad, stop!" Sara yelled as she held her father back.
"That was not an entirely unexpected greeting," Rip muttered under his breath as he straightened.
"I know exactly who he is, Sara," Captain Lance said rubbing his fist. "I vaguely remembered seeing him when you were a teenager and then when I saw his face again, all the memories came crashing back. He kidnapped you!"
"No, Dad," she dissented. "I kidnapped me when I was a teenager, along with a few friends."
"What?" the police captain was more than a little confused.
"I'll explain everything once we're inside," she said. "Can we please go inside? We can't have this conversation in the hallway. And frankly that smell coming from the kitchen is making me hungry." Sara tried a cajoling smile to pacify him.
"Donna's cooking," Captain Lance said as he cast a wary eye on Rip. He stepped aside to let them through.
After a little while, Rip, Captain Lance and the captain's girlfriend, Donna Smoak, were sitting in the living room listening to Sara's narrative of what happened since she stepped into the Waverider. Captain Lance wasn't about to exclude Donna from the conversation despite Sara's initial disagreement. He explained that she was as much a part of the family as any one person. Surprisingly, Rip made no objection.
"Wait, so, all this time, you've been with a team in his spaceship on a mission to save the future," Captain summarized. "You weren't coerced?" Sara shook her head. "And he's your captain? Your commanding officer?"
That remark drew a snort from Rip as he said, "I think we both know that nobody commands your daughter, Captain Lance."
"Damn, right," Quentin Lance grinned at his daughter.
Sara rolled her eyes at them but smiled as she continued her narrative. "So, anyway, without going into too many details that could possibly undo everything we've accomplished, I wanted to come here to let you know that we've succeeded in stopping Vandal Savage."
"Then, you're done?" her father's voice was fairly bursting with joy. "You're coming home? To stay?"
"Er, that's actually the second reason I came to see you," she glanced furtively at Rip. "I've decided to stay with Rip."
"Why?" Quentin Lance asked. Sara's words choked her as she looked into his heart broken eyes.
"Because I've asked her to become my partner," Rip answered for her. "Time masters have worked alone for centuries. However, after what my team was able to accomplish, the Time Masters Council recognized the advantages of allowing a time master to have companions. They cannot sanction a team as large as I used to have but they agreed that time masters are now allowed to chose one companion to support them in their missions. And as I have been recently reinstated into my position as a time master, I asked Sara, your daughter, to be my equal partner, for as long as she will have me."
Rip's statement was met with silence. Sara could see in her father's eyes the signs of sadness and defeat. She could almost hear him beg her to stay home, to be safe, with him. And almost at the same moment he would resist the part of himself that would allow himself to go against what his daughter needed herself to be. It was tearing her apart to see him struggle with himself. She closed her eyes. Rip was right, she would have been pouring out her soul to the man who raised her if the time master wasn't around.
"Wait," Donna Smoak's voice piped up for the first time. She had been taking a long while to process what she had just heard, "when you say 'partner for as long as she'll have you', do you mean like a life-partner? Is it like a marriage? You asked Sara to marry you?"
"What?" Quentin Lance looked at Rip Hunter with an expression that Sara could not interpret as anything but hope.
Hope?
Everything clicked into place in Sara's mind.
"Yes!" Sara declared.
"No." Rip spoke evenly at the same time.
"No?" Captain Lance frowned at Rip.
"Yes?" Rip looked at Sara in wonder at the moment he heard her answer her father.
"Oh, dammit," Sara swore as she whipped out the stun gun and aimed it at her father and Donna. Within two seconds, Quentin and Donna were unconscious.
"What did you just do?!" Rip cried out.
"Sorry, I panicked," she mumbled as she watched Rip check on her dad.
He looked at her incredulously. "You never panic," he pointed out.
"Oh, God," she buried her face in her hands. "What have I done?"
Rip sighed and sat beside her. "It's alright. They'll be fine, as you well know, the stun gun has no lasting effect. We can wake them up in the Medbay of the Waverider to make absolutely sure."
He totally misunderstood her distress, but she wasn't about to tell him. Instead, she nodded.
"And for the record, I had no idea that you thought I was asking you to marry me," he said. "My intentions were for a purely professional partnership due to the fact that you have been instrumental to the success of the missions we have been on. Had I known that you had romantic inclinations towards me—"
Sara groaned and got up from the sofa.
"I do not have romantic inclinations!" she cried. "Of course, I knew you weren't asking me to marry you."
"Then, why on earth did you let you father think that I did?"
"Because it is the only way he would let me go without breaking his heart," she said softly.
Rip couldn't find an adequate response to her words.
"You said it yourself, my father has been through so much because of me and Laurel," she told him as she moved to the couch where her father slumped. "I could hear it in his voice and see it in his eyes. I was leaving him again to face indefinite danger. He will be staying up at night wondering if I'm still alive and he will never have any peace for the rest of his life.
"But, if he thinks that I am doing it to be with the man I love," she gestured at Rip with a grimace, "he might still have chance at a happy and peaceful life. Or at least, he will actually get to sleep at night."
"And if you can manage to keep that expression of disgust off of your face when you tell him you're in love with me, you might actually convince him," Rip mocked. "Come on, Sara, are you really going to lie to your father for the rest of his life?"
"You're one to talk," she bit back. "I'm doing this to protect his sanity. I have to make him believe that at least one of his daughters is living happily ever after," she argued. "And you're going to help me."
Rip snorted. "Or what?"
Sara looked at him with a raised brow. There was really no need to answer.
Rip touched the communicator inside his ear.
"Gideon, fly the jumpship to my location," he commanded. "We are having Miss Lance's parents over for dinner."
888888
"How are you feeling?"
Captain Lance shook his head to get rid of the remaining cobwebs in his brain.
"What the hell did you do to me?" he asked Rip as he got up from the medical bed. He refused the time master's help to get up.
"That was actually me, Daddy," Sara answered as she helped Donna Smoak get up.
"Where are we?" Donna asked, still a little woozy.
"You're in the Medbay of my ship," Rip said. There was a hint of pride in his voice he couldn't hide.
"This is where you lived when you went away?" Captain Lance asked.
"Yes, Dad," she said.
"And this is where you're planning to stay for the rest of your life?" he asked his daughter.
"I've made a commitment to Rip," Sara said evasively. That wasn't a lie.
"You're really going to marry this guy?" Lance frowned. "What do you even really know about him? I know you said you traveled through space and time with him, but come on? You're trying to tell me you love him enough to make a life-long commitment but you won't tell me where he comes from or when he comes from. This guy could be a cold-blooded murderer."
"The guy is standing right here, listening," Rip muttered. Father and daughter ignored him. Donna patted his arm.
"I know everything I need to know about him," Sara said as she took her father's hands in hers. This was it. The moment of truth. She needs to convince him enough to let her go.
"I trust him, Daddy. I know him and how his mind works. And he knows how to deal with me and my bloodlust. We saved the world together. And I want to stay with him. Daddy, I believe in him. Please believe in me." Again, no lies.
Quentin Lance looked into his daughter's eyes and knew that she was telling him the truth. She was in love with the time-traveling bastard and there was nothing he could do but let her go to the man she loved. He gathered his daughter in his arms and kissed her head.
"OK, sweetheart," he whispered against her hair.
Donna wiped a tear from her eye. Rip shifted on his feet uncomfortably.
"I can't say I'm entirely unhappy that you're marrying a man," said Captain Lance. With a look at Sara's face, he quickly explained, "I have nothing against your ex-girlfriends and I would have been perfectly happy if you told me you wanted to spend the rest of your life with any of them. But your dad is a forward-thinking old-fashioned guy who wanted a couple of grandkids."
Sara rolled her eyes and groaned. Rip simply stared at him blankly.
"At least that becomes a possibility now, right?" Captain Lance smiled.
"They probably haven't actually talked about that yet," Donna saved them from answering. "Rip, dear, why don't you show your future father-in-law around your spaceship."
It was hard to tell who was more uncomfortable around the term 'future father-in-law', Rip or Quentin, but neither one balked at leaving the Medbay.
"Well, that went better than expected," Donna said as she turned to her boyfriend's daughter.
"Thanks for being so calm," Sara smiled. "I know all this is a lot to take in. We weren't really supposed to bring either of you here but things got complicated."
"Felicity thinks she protects me by keeping secrets, but I've learned that the truth is better at protecting us than the lie," Donna said. "Except when the truth is sure to keep a father up at night."
Sara looked at her sharply. "You know?"
"That you and your handsome captain aren't exactly engaged?" Donna smiled knowingly. "If I remember correctly, I gave you that idea."
"But—"
"Sara, I saw his heart breaking the same time you did," Donna told the blond assassin. "I am not very smart, and honestly this time traveling thing is beyond me. But things are simple when you're in love. And like you, I know how the mind of my captain works. Yes, we are lying to him, and yes, maybe we are just delaying the inevitable. But if I can give him even a little peace of mind with this lie, I am not about to take it away. Besides, it might not be a lie for long."
"What?" Sara quickly realized what Donna was implying. "No. You already know that I'm not actually in love with Rip. I am not really marrying him."
"Yeah, so you say," Donna shrugged nonchalantly.
"And I am not ever going to be," Sara insisted. "He is not my type."
"OK, sweetie," Donna patted her cheek. "Just make sure to come visit with those couple of grandkids really soon. Your dad and I aren't getting any younger. We can set a play date with Felicity's kids when she decides to have them."
"There will be no kids!"
"There is no way you can say that for sure," Donna said.
"Yes, there is," Sara's eyes lit up. "Gideon, search the timeline for grandchildren of Quentin Lance and Donna Smoak. And I am talking about direct descendants, not from siblings or cousins, but from their own children."
"Yes, Miss Lance," the AI's voice filled the room. Donna looked up in surprise.
"That's Gideon, a powerful super computer who has access to all timelines," Sara explained, almost bragging.
"Miss Lance, there are a total of eight recorded grandchildren directly descending from the children of Quentin Lance and Donna Smoak," Gideon announced.
Donna gasped in delight. Sara's eyes widened like saucers.
"Whose kids are they?" Sara demanded.
"What's going on?" Rip asked as he and Quentin Lance walked in.
"Oh, Quentin, we're going to have eight grandchildren," Donna laughed as she walked into Captain Lance's open arms.
"Sara, what did you do?" Rip asked with trepidation.
"I asked Gideon how many grandkids my father and Donna are going to have," she said absently. "Gideon, tell me whose kids they are!"
"No, Gideon, do not answer that question!" Rip commanded. "Sara, you cannot disrupt the timeline this way. Haven't you seen enough to know how dangerous it is for anyone to know too much about the future?"
Sara ignored him and turned to Donna. "How many kids do you have?"
"Just Felicity," she smiled widely. Still giddy from the anticipation of grandchildren.
"Dad, please tell me you have a secret family stashed away somewhere," she all but begged her father.
"Sweetheart," he said. "You should know the answer to that by now."
"I am not going to have eight kids!" Sara yelled as she walked out of the Medbay.
"Oh, don't worry," Donna called out. "Maybe Felicity will have seven of the eight."
They heard a loud crash followed by Sara's very angry scream.
The End…. For now