When Alex wakes up, the bed beside her is empty and cold. She sighs. Sara should have woken her up. Then again, she feels properly rested for the first time in weeks. She can't blame the assassin for letting her sleep in. She considers staying in bed a little longer, then decides against it. She gets bored lying in bed like that anyway. As she gets out of bed, she contemplates what she is going to wear. Her plans for the trip definitely hadn't looked further forward than the one night, so there is a distinct lack of clothing choices. In the end, she settles for the jeans she wore last night and a DEO issued T-shirt. Why a clandestine government organisation creates clothing with its logo on the front is beyond her, but considering the DEO doesn't exist in this universe, she decides it doesn't matter.
After she's dressed and brushed her hair, taking care not to look in the mirror, she makes her way out the door. She decides her best bet is the break room. As she walks towards her, she can hear loud grumbling. Even though she doesn't know the Legends well, she'd bet a month's salary that Mick is the one doing the grumbling. She's already contemplating what she's going to say to the team when they see her, not looking forward to that conversation. She doesn't need the entire population of the ship to know that she was here for an admittedly failed Valentine's Day booty call.
But any thoughts on how she will be received fly right out of her mind when she enters the break room. It doesn't look at all like the room she saw yesterday, even though her inebriated state might've clouded her memory slightly. She almost gasps. Mick laughs loudly at the expression on her face, but Sara wallops him over the head before he can say anything.
The entire break room is decked out in reds and pinks, and there is an extraordinary amount of hearts all over the walls. The table in the centre of the room, around which the Legends are sat, is full of Valentine's Day themed breakfast foods. Alex spots waffles with pink heart shaped sprinkles, as well as a fruit salad with apple slices cut in the shape of hearts. Sara must've been awake for hours to get this done.
She finally looks over at the woman in question, who grins at her widely. And Alex decides right then and there that Sara's smile is one of the purest things in this world. The assassin is wearing more pink than Alex has ever seen on any one person at once, which is another thing Alex had never in a million years expected to see. She's wearing a bright pink crop top that says "Girls rock!" underneath a light pink jacket. And even her hair is apparently dyed a bright shade of fuchsia. "Wow." Alex exclaims. Sara just grins more.
Then, the rest of the team decides to make their presence known. "Hey, Alex." Ray says. She turns towards him, and looks at the goofy grin on his face. He reminds her of Winn, with his awkward goodness and obvious genius. "It's good to see you again. Happy Valentine's Day!" Alex thanks Ray, as the rest of the team greets her and wishes her a happy Valentine's Day as well. Not one of them enquire as to why she's here, and she's grateful. She suspects that Sara has already talked to them, and quite possibly threatened them if they say anything out of line.
"Well, now that we're all done wishing each other a happy Valentine's Day, time to dig in! I didn't make all of this food for nothing." "The food fabricator made that food." Mick points out. Sara wallops him over the head again. "Well, you're going to need the energy anyway. We have quite the day ahead of us." She says, grinning. "Well, someone's pleased with themselves." Zari says, but she quickly piles some pancakes on her plate anyway. Alex sits down, and grabs some food for herself as well. All the pink foods are slightly off-putting to her, with their unnatural colours. Then again, she supposes all of the food is unnatural, since it is made by an actual food fabricator. And Alex fully plans to find out how that thing works, if she sticks around long enough anyway.
"So, what is it you have planned?" Alex asks Sara. "Top secret." Sara says, miming zipping her mouth and throwing the key away. "Come on! At least tell us a little." Nate wines. When he sees that Sara will definitely not crack, he looks over at Amaya. "What about you? Just give us something." Amaya smiles politely. "I promised Sara I wouldn't say anything, and I am a woman of my word. Besides, you like to be surprised anyway." Nate groans defeatedly. But Alex is becoming slightly intrigued, despite herself. She came to the Waverider to distract herself from her wallowing, but she didn't expect that she might actually enjoy her time there, at least a little. And if Sara needed Amaya's help for whatever it was she has planned, it had to be something big. But she doesn't mind being in the dark just a little bit longer.
After they'd all finished their food and put their plates in the dishwasher (because apparently dishes had to be done even in a time-travelling spaceship) Sara calls out for their attention. "So, for this first part I'm going to warn you: bring some warm clothes, or you'll be freezing in no time." "I hate the cold." Mick grumbles. "Why can't we just spend Valentine's Day on a tropical beach somewhere?" Sara ignores him. "And also: I'm not going to force you all to wear pink-" "I'd like to see you try, blondie." Mick interjects. "But no wearing black today. Let's show that we are part of the Light side." Sara looks at Alex's black DEO T-shirt pointedly, while Ray grins at the Star Wars reference. "Alright, let's meet in half an hour at the cargo doors." She says, dismissing the crew. Alex helps her tidy away the last few dishes, and then follows her to her room. "I didn't actually bring that many clothes." She tells Sara as they're walking. She doesn't like the glint that comes into Sara's eyes as she says this. Whatever the blonde is planning, she's sure she won't be too happy about it. As they walk past the door to Sara's room, Alex moves to go inside. "Not yet." Sara says, walking down the next hallway instead. "Just follow me."
They end up in a space reminiscent of a high school gym locker room, but without the stench. Alex looks around the room. "I don't see any clothes here." Sara just grins. "You've seen our food fabricator; now meet our clothes fabricator." She looks almost proud. "It can create any outfit from any era. And also false documents!" Alex raises her eyebrows. Sara just rolls her eyes. "Don't be such a special agent." "Don't be such an assassin." Alex retorts. Before she can react, she's lying on the floor with Sara's knee to her throat. "This is me being an assassin." It's Alex's turn to roll her eyes. "Yeah, we get it. You're superstrong and superfast." "And don't you forget it." The blonde says, as she jumps back to a standing position.
"Okay, time to make you an outfit." She grins wickedly, and Alex realizes that this is what her premonition had been about. "So how does it work?" "Oh, don't you worry your pretty little head about that." Alex blushes. She can't believe she'd forgotten what a total flirt the woman was. As she's contemplating this, she can hear the machine buzzing. Sara is between her and the fabricator, so she can't see the outfit at first. When she does, she almost has to close her eyes, the colours are so bright. "There is no chance in hell I'm wearing that." She exclaims. Inside the fabricator, there's a bright blue skirt, made of wool for warmth. On top of it, there's a coat made of faux-fur which matches the shade of Sara's hair. Next to it, there's a grey thermal shirt which is clearly made of twenty-first century materials. She raises an eyebrow at Sara. "That doesn't look very historically accurate." Sara just shrugs. "Well, as long as you don't plan on showing anyone what's underneath your coat." She says, with a wink. "I'm still not wearing those clothes." She insists, ignoring the comment. "Come on, Danvers. Have a little fun. I'm going to plan an amazing day, so you just have to follow along." Alex sighs, then decides there really is no point in arguing with the woman. Besides, she's not really sure she wants to. What Sara is doing for her is incredibly kind, so the least she can do is play along.
When they meet with the rest of the crew at the cargo doors, Alex is surprised to see that the whole crew has listened to Sara's instructions. Although most of their clothes are a bit more subdued, they are all wearing light colours, and Amaya even has a pink headband. Sara raises her eyebrows at Nate, who is wearing a light pink coat. "What?" He says. "I look good in pink." He grins, as Amaya rolls her eyes. "Sure you do, pretty." Mick says. But even he is wearing grey trousers and a blue coat.
"So, will you tell us where we're going now?" Ray asks excitedly. "Just wait and see." Sara says, as she opens the door to the cargo bay. The first thing that Alex sees as the doors lower are the tops of fir trees, covered in a layer of snow. It seems Sara wasn't kidding about the cold. Then when the doors lower, she sees something that looks a bit like a ski-slope. There is a big banner above the slope, with five intertwined coloured circles which Alex immediately recognizes. "We're at the Winter Olympics?" She exclaims excitedly. She doesn't usually get overly excited about sports competitions, but there is something about the Olympics which makes her interested and invested anyway. "Got it in one." Sara says, as she steps out of the doors. Nate looks around carefully. "Is this Oslo? Oh my god, this is Oslo, isn't it? I recognise the Norwegian flag. Which means this is…" "1952." Sara finishes, nodding. She looks back over her shoulder at the rest of the team, still standing on the ramp of the ship. "Well, what are you guys waiting for? Time to watch America kick some ass." They follow her outside the doors, towards the slope. When they get to the masses of people surrounding the finish line at the bottom of the ramp, Sara flashes a badge at a security guard. He immediately escorts them to a special area, near the finish line. As one of the skiers comes down the hill, Alex marvels at how close they are. She can almost see the expression on the man's face as he tumbles through the air after jumping of the slope. She looks at Sara, smiling. "This is incredible!" She has to yell to make herself heard over the cheering from the spectator stands. Apparently the current skier is Norwegian. "I agree with the redhead." Mick says approvingly. The entire time looks at him, surprised. "What? At least some of these losers are gonna fall down that mountain." Amaya shakes her head, as the rest of the team laughs. As the conversation falls into smaller groups, Alex looks at Sara. "So, are you also going to compete?" It wouldn't surprise Alex in the least if the woman had decided to participate in the event.
"Oh, don't think I haven't considered it." Sara says wistfully. "I'd beat all of their asses. But I can't. No interfering with the timeline, remember? That's the first rule of being a Legend." Alex is pretty sure their presence already counts as interfering, but she doesn't point it out. For now, she's content sitting there with the team, watching the sportsmen ski down the hill and perform insanely complicated jumps.
Thanks so much for reading! And if you have any suggestions on where the Legens could go next, I'd love to hear them. Happy Valentine's Day!