Then, it's the den mother's turn. Privately, Sara knows she probably shouldn't call the other woman that, but there are times it just fits.
"How is he?"
"Out." She doesn't have the heart or the energy to go through the rundown again.
Kendra seems to understand. She crosses the room to stand next to her friend, silently putting a hand on her shoulder. It is, oddly, comforting.
"Why don't you go get something to eat and a nap? I'll stay."
She opens her mouth. Closes it. "No."
No comment. An inquisitive tilt of the head. Damn it.
"I can't," she adds, lamely. What else can she say?
I told him how lonely it is to die alone.
I told him I didn't even like him.
I promised I'd stay.
Kendra seems to hear what she doesn't say. Damn her.
"Can I get you something? A snack? A pillow? Something to wash up with?"
No one else has offered her this, has seemed to understand her choices, and she's suddenly grateful.
"Yes, please."
Kendra nods, eyes on Snart. Sara, watching, is suddenly startled by the realization that she is thinking about Carter ... who hadn't had the chance to be whisked back to Gideon for "repairs."
The brown eyes snap back to Sara.
"You're lucky," she says, abruptly, for Kendra. "You have more time. You might want to think about that."
She sweeps out, leaving Sara staring after her and wondering what the hell she was talking about.
And uneasily suspecting that she knows.
xxxxx
Kendra is good to her word. With a sigh, Sara drags her shirt over her head, eyeing the basin of water.
"You're missing out, Snart," she calls over her shoulder. "Quite the show."
She misses the snark. She really does.
The water is warm and clear. By the time she's done washing up, it's clouded with dirt and blood. While it's not quite as good as a hot shower, she'll take it.
She pulls her shirt back on and takes a deep breath. That's better.
"Thanks."
The voice is gravelly, rough with fatigue and pain.
She doesn't jump, but she does freeze. And then she smiles.
"You're welcome."
Rising, she takes a deep breath, turns, and walks back over the bedside.
The blue eyes are open, if barely, and look even bluer against the pale face.
I have no business thinking that about this man right now, she thinks, ridiculously.
"How long?" he rasps.
"You've been out about 12 hours," she tells him. "It was ... close. Gideon said you'd make it if you woke up. So, welcome back. You look like hell."
"Encouraging."
Ah, yes. There he is.
She's missed him. And she doesn't want to think about that, or the past 15 hours or so, too much.
"Well, I call 'em like I see 'em."
They study each other for a moment. Awkward. She's never been one to talk to fill a silence, but she does now.
"You're going to be fine," she says. Babbles, really. Goddamn it, Snart ...
His mouth twitches. Moment over, she thinks.
Or not.
"I thought I was going to die alone," he says quietly. "In the alley. Here. Thank you for staying."
Sincerity. It disarms her. "You're welcome," she repeats. "I'm glad I did."
They study each other again. So many things in the silence. They say none of them.
He breaks it again.
"It was .. Mick. And Savage. Although it was Savage with the knife."
It rocks her. Like him or not ... and, honestly she sort of had ... he'd been a part of the team, and Snart's oldest friend. Who'd left him to die.
"Shit."
Her tone is pissed and surprised, but apparently not in the way he thought it would be. His eyes snap back to her face. "You ..."
"Look, Snart, I knew you didn't kill him. That's just not a thing you'd do. You wouldn't let me kill Stein; you wouldn't have frozen Mick to death in a field somewhere. I didn't believe that for a moment."
It's her turn for disarming sincerity, now.
She steps closer. He shifts, innately wary, as bandages move and the wiring pulls.
"Future medical technology. Good stuff to have." His gaze is full of suspicion. "How close?"
"Close." She avoids his eyes for a moment, then reaches out and slips her hand into his, like she's done on and off, all through the night.
His grip tightens both the rest of him reacts, gaze finally meeting hers again. But he doesn't say anything. Or pull his hand away.
It might have been a few moments. It might have been an hour. But they both startle ... and let go .. when Hunter's voice booms from the doorway.
"Back in the land of the living, I see, Mr. Snart!"
She can see the mask go back down. She's almost relieved.
"So it seems," he says, in that infuriating drawl. "Thank you, Gideon."
"You are welcome, Mr. Snart," responds the cool computer voice. "It seems there will be no lasting damage, and your heart is perfectly stable now."
Now? The cool blue gaze is on her again. This time, she looks away.
Hunter, to all appearances, notices nothing of this. "Excellent! Well, there are some people here who'd like to see you."
And then they pour in, the rest of them, passing through the doorway, from Ray with his puppy-dog grin to paternally beaming Stein.
"Dude! You scared the rest of us! You should have seen all the blood!"
Stein pauses to scold an unrepentant Jax, and all eyes go there.
Except hers.
He looks ... bewildered, almost ... by all the relief and the attention for a moment, and then the mask slides smoothly back into place. But she sees, though briefly, and she lets him keep that small vulnerability without comment.
Once they've all had the moment to see for themselves that the injured member of their team is more or less on the mend and getting back to his snarky self - he manages to insult Ray six times in five minutes; she counts - they filter out again, Hunter reminding them that he'll be back later for a debriefing. She'll want to be here for that, she decides. He'll need the support.
What did she become his support?
Kendra has promised to return in a few moments, and she knows it's time to be going.
"I'll be back later. You doing OK?"
A lifted eyebrow. "I'll live. Apparently." He relents and lets the mask slip a little again. "I could use a drink and to move around a little, but I don't know if I can get away with that ... yet."
"I don't know how Gideon's 'full repair' works with the recovery process. I guess you'll find out."
After all this time, it's hard to walk away. But they still need their masks, most of the time anyway, and so she throws him a smirk as she turns to leave.
"So ... tell me, Snart ... were you awake the entire time I was washing up?"
His bark of laughter follows her out the door.
And they can pretend nothing's changed ... for now.
xxxxxx
The boy lives.
He manages to pick himself up, pale and sweating, sometime before dawn, and hides in his room. His father acts like nothing's happened. He probably doesn't even remember. There's a lot of empties on the counter that night, after all.
No one makes him go to school that day. He manages it the next day, still pissing blood and carrying himself stiffly and carefully. There's a massive bruise on his side that turns all sorts of impressive colors before it finally fades weeks later, but no one notices. No one ever does.
He survives.
It takes a long time before he starts to consider trust as anything other than a liability again. He trusts his sister, to some extent, but she's from the same messed-up family that he is, so there's still all that baggage. He trusts a partner in crime for a while, but that eventually goes south. Honor among thieves, and all that.
Sometimes he's still the boy in the dark.
But lately, the man wonders if maybe trust might be less of a liability than he thought.
Maybe.
Just ... maybe.
xxxxx
We have no past, we won't reach back
Keep with me forward all through the night ...
Author's notes:
One: I like Mick in his own sociopathic way, but I do think he's going to be working with Savage for now. (See: Extremely similar "I want to watch the world burn" comments made by both. Mick in "Star City 2046," Savage in an earlier episode I can't recall at the moment. I daresay that is not a coincidence.) I hope there's hope for redemption at some point... but comic canon Mick has never tiptoed as close to the light as canon Leonard has. In fact, I don't think he's ever shown any interest in it at all...
Two: And, oh yeah, no way in hell the man who talked Sara out of killing Stein and spared Jax would have killed Mick. No bloody way.
Three: Sorry, no overt romance in this one. Fan of the slooooowwww burn here. (And quite necessary, with these two, I think.) Slow freeze, perhaps? Heheh.
Four: Kendra totally ships it.
Five: Yes, I know there's some funny timeline stuff here, and our villains are where and when they couldn't possibly have been. I am not unaware of this. I am also not unaware that no one as used to using a knife as Savage would have failed to deal a killing blow. HmmmMmmmm... ;)
Six: I have a bit of fluff to post in the next day or too, then I hope to have something else before the next ep, but I'll just have to see about that. Life and work, etc., etc.
Seven: Thanks for reading!