If the silence before had been loaded, then this, this silence, is charged beyond belief.
An involuntary noise crosses Sara's lips—she will not call it a whimper—and Leonard shifts abruptly, turning into her almost protectively, eyes searching hers. He opens his mouth to speak...only to turn and stare over her head when Mick releases an abrupt oath.
And then nearly everyone speaks at once.
Rip is just staring at them.
"Oh," he breathes. "Oh, bloody hell."
Leonard actually chuckles.
"I'm taking it you know what that is," he says. "And I'm right. It isn't good."
Rip sort of collapses into his seat. "No, Mr. Snart. No, it is not." He puts a hand over his eyes. "Do you know...do you have any inkling at all...how Thawne thinks he can do this?"
The crook doesn't speak at first. He slouches in the chair next to Sara, eyes moving from team member to team member, looking for all the world like he'd never even left. Finally, he looks back at Rip, lips moving in a humorless smile.
"You're not telling me everything...captain," he drawls.
Rip straightens a little, eyes narrowing. "Put yourself in our shoes," he snaps back. "Would you?"
Unexpectedly, Leonard smiles at the words. "Nope," he says, shrugging and sitting up a little himself. "Wouldn't. OK, then:
"Thawne wanted me to steal your ship's time drive. Said it was necessary for the plan. He also wanted me to figure out a way to steal your AI. He seemed to believe he'd need both those things, and then he was taking us to a place called the Vanishing Point."
The quality of the silence has him looking around him again. "Something else you're not telling me…" he muses. "OK…"
Sara puts her hand on his arm, and he smiles at her, just a little. But his eyes are wary, and she bites her lip to see it.
"Is that even possible?" Ray's voice breaks the silence. "I mean…I thought it was destroyed. It looked…well, it looked pretty well destroyed. In the explos…"
His eyes go to Leonard…most of their eyes do, honestly...but the former Legion member isn't looking at him. He's looking at Mick, who's sidled closer, a frown on his face.
"Stealing Gideon…that shouldn't really be possible either," Mick says. "The AIs are hardwired into the ship systems. Now, we…they teach emergency measures, to salvage the AI in the case of scuttling a ship, but it's not something Thawne should know about—nor something even you should be able to pull off."
Leonard's looking at the other man like he's a dog who suddenly started quoting Shakespeare. "Well, Thawne seemed to think it was possible," he says shortly. "Although, to be honest, I was the one who was supposed to figure it out. I suppose it's possible he was setting me up. I wouldn't trust him any further than I could outrun him."
"How do we know that you're not 'stealing' this ship right now?" Nate pipes up suddenly. "I mean, you're here an hour and we're thinking about taking it to the Vanishing Point...I mean, aren't we? Seems like that would be a pretty effective way to go about things."
Sara's head snaps up and she sucks in a breath. It's not that the historian-turned-hero is completely wrong—it's a rather astute observation, really—but it's hard not to take it personally, given that Leonard is here because of her and her actions. But the crook actually gives the other man a rather approving look before shrugging.
"You don't," he says. "All you can do is take me at my word for now, and make sure you keep track of me. But I can tell you this: I never would have predicted I'd be here now. Or why."
He turns his head and looks at Sara, and the heat in his eyes is...she licks her lips, smiles a little, laughing internally a little at the distant sound of Amaya's sigh, Ray's quizzical noise of discomfort, Jax's snicker...
Mick huffs out a laugh, breaking the tension.
"And you two with the eye sex," he says with resignation. "Some things never really change, do they?"
She sees Leonard's head snap around at the big man's words—oh, Mick, really?-but Rip, having apparently regained some equilibrium, cuts in smoothly.
"The Vanishing Point...well, it's not impossible. It would no longer be outside of time, because of the destruction of...well...but the wreckage presumably exists." He sounds thoughtful. "I can't believe there'd be anything left of the Wellspring. But I suppose that's something we need to check out, especially how precipitous our departure was last time.
"Gideon. I can't believe I'm saying this, but...set a course for the Vanishing Point."
Rip has requested that Leonard, with his knowledge of the Legion, and Mick, Stein, Ray, and Sara—those with even the most minor knowledge of temporal theory-convene in his study, so that they can try to figure out what Thawne might be up to. While the crook rolls his eyes at the request—and, cutting his eyes to her, makes it clear what he'd prefer to be doing—he complies readily enough.
Sara watches him walk over to Mick, and mentally wishes her friend luck. Of all of them, Mick Rory has changed the most over the course of this whole venture, and she doesn't envy the path he now has to walk between the Mick-Rory-that-was and the Mick-Rory-that-is, a discrepancy she can see this Leonard poking at until it backfires on him.
And speaking of which...
Before Rip can follow the others, she grabs the captain by the arm, swinging him around to face her and ignoring the irritated look she gets in response.
"Do we tell him?" No need to question what.
Rip stares at her a second, then sighs, looking away. When he looks back, there's sadness in his eyes.
"Sara," he says finally. "If he knows he's going to die on the mission, do you really think he'll go?"
"Do you reallythink he hasn't figured it out? And he's still here."
The captain just shakes his head.
"I don't know. I'm going to be honest, Sara. I don't feel like I know much right now. So much of this seems impossible and yet...here we are." He claps her on the arm, giving her a melancholy smile. "It's ridiculously trite, but...listen to your heart. It's gotten us here, hasn't it? And apparently that is a good thing."
She stays for a while, but while she can weigh in on some aspects, some possibilities, the talk soon turns to sheer temporal theory, the Time Masters and the nature of the Oculus itself—paired with a good amount of dancing around what specifically caused its destruction and the careful dodging of references to theirLeonard.
It's exhausting, and it doesn't take long before she demurs, wishes them luck, and heads for the door. She thinks, for a moment, that Leonard's going to tell the others to go to hell and follow her out, but he doesn't...although his eyes do, and the gaze makes her shiver from head to toe.
It's not a sensation that's particularly conducive to rest.
She works off a bit of the adrenaline of the day sparring with the others (she and Amaya are trying to teach both Jax and Nate a little more in the way of non-super-powered self defense), but they're also trying, so carefully, not to ask about Leonard that that wears on her too. After a while, she bows out and returns to her room, stretching with a sigh and contemplating a hot shower.
Until she hears the drawl behind her.
"So. I'm told there's not a spare room. But they've graciously decided I don't have to stay in the brig, not as long as you're...keeping tabs...on me."
A smile crosses her face as she turns. "How can you make 'keeping tabs' sound so downright filthy?"
"Just gifted, I guess." Leonard saunters into the room, eyes appreciative as he takes in her partially clad form, eventually leaning against the bed in a way that evokes so many memories that she has to glance away for a second. "If you kick me out, I'm supposed to go stay with Mick. I'd rather stay here. What the hell did you people do to him?"
"Hmm. That's his story. It's up to him to tell you."
"Except that he won't."
"Even so." It occurs to her that she could probably completely defuse this by suggesting that shower...
But it's not to be.
Leonard's looking up at her from behind those lashes—those damned lashes, totally unfair—and his next words give her no out.
"So, you...knew...the me from your time. A few years ahead of this me. That's what you meant with 'I see you.' You were telling the truth." His voice is low, intense with something she can't quite name.
"I...haven't lied to you."
"Mmmmmm. Then what..." But now he hesitates, looking away, then back at her. "What were we? Future me, and you?"
"...me and you..."
She's quiet a long moment, collecting her thoughts, and he lets her. Then, she takes a long breath, and says, "Friends."
"Friends?" His eyebrows rise. "Not..."
"No." She hesitates again. "You...made a play. Well, I think it was a play. And I was angry at you. I walked away. And then when I saw you...this you..."
He looks at her and she doesn't have a good word for what's in his eyes at that moment.
"So," he says then, calmly, too calmly, "how do I die?"
She'd told Rip he'd figure it out. Still, she can't stop herself from the moment of utter horror, the fear, the pain-and she knows it's all reflected on her face.
He shrugs in response to her expression. "I'm...the man you knew then...he's not here. Everyone is being very careful to not say where he is. And you looked at me like I was a ghost. And you know what? I don't really think I want to know, after all. Not right now. But..." Now she can see the flicker of pain in his eyes. "Is that all it is? Was? Regrets?"
"No!" This time, the word is explosive. "I mean...yes, I have regrets, but...Len, I didn't lie to you. I've lost so many people, so many things over the past year, and you...you were one of them..." She takes a shaky breath, lets it out on a equally shaky, humorless laugh, and continues.
"Yes, I did part of what I did because I missed a chance and I regretted it so much, so very much, that it was killing me. But there was also that connection, like I told you. It was...is...there, and it was every bit as real as it was then, and I just..."
And suddenly, just like that, she knows what to say.
"I miss him," she says quietly, looking him in the eye. "I had started falling in love with him. But...but I finished falling in love with you."
Something has changed in his eyes again, and it's a combination of what she'd seen there, so long ago, as he said the words "me and you," and newer things, including something so fragile and precious that she almost can't believe it. Moving carefully, like he just might scare her off, he straightens a little, then reaches for her as she steps toward him, moving into his arms with a sigh and lifting her mouth to his.
It's like coming home.