Agent Sharpe heard the sound of her door opening and looked up from the papers fanned out around her desk. "Sara!" She stood to greet the other woman, stepping around her desk, "Please, come in." Ava notioned for her to come further in the room.
Ava shut the door and looked to the woman in her office, subtley admiring her. Sara usually dressed very casually and although the Agentcertainlydidnt mind the way the woman's tank tops gracefully exposed her intense muscles and collarbone, Sara's current outfit was an exciting change. The blue of her shirt made the color of her eyes seem to glow. Ava hadn't seen the black leather jacket she was wearing before, but noticed how worn and well-liked it was. On her way in, the Agent took note how her jeans fit in all the right places and how the Captain's shoes had a bit of a heel to them so that Ava didn't have to look down so much.
Sara had noticed how long it was taking the Agent to say whatever was clearly on the tip of her tongue. She narrowed her eyes, "What?" She smirked as she stuck a hand in her back pocket.
"Uh..." Ava pulled herself together with a shake of her head, "How was dinner?"
"Great! Everything was going pretty smoothly when I left." The Captain ran a hand through her hair messily, wondering if she'd just jinxed it and now the Legends were going to burn the place to the ground without her there. She'd better get back soon to babysit them. "Did you find anything out for me?" She asked hopefully.
Ava, remembering the purpose of the meeting, sat on the edge of her desk and reached back to grab the files she'd collected. "I haven't had time to go through them yet, but I found some information on your doctor." She offered the stack over.
"What kind of information?" Sara accepted the files and began flipping through the top one.
"Nothing specifically regarding the kid you mentioned." Ava sadly announced, and when she saw the disappointment weighing on Sara's face, she was quick to continue, "But she could still be in here somewhere. We pulled all the data we could find on his research and projects. We'll just have to manually look for any clues; the old fashion way."
The Captain nodded in agreement. She handed Ava a few folders then sank heavily into the chair next to her with her own stack. Sara began reading through her second file as she asked, "How's it going with the safe house?"
"Not well, actually." Ava informed, pursing her lips as she scanned a page so that she wouldn't have to see Sara's disappointment again. "I was having a difficult time justifying the funds with the Bureau. I can still make it happen without them, but I can't go through my usual channels so it will take more time." She glanced up to watch Sara sigh and dramatically close one folder and open the next.
"How long?" The Captain asked eventually. If she absolutely had to, she could probably get in touch with some contacts she'd had during her time with the League. But it was far riskier and absolutely last, last,lastchoice. It could be dangerous to even contact them after her leaving the way she did. She'd exhaust every other possible route before they'd consider putting Juliette in with any of the League's associates, even if it took a while.
"Maybe a couple weeks. She'll be safest with you in the temporal zone until then." Ava said.
Frustrated, Sara changed the subject, "What kind of research was this guy known for doing? What's his background?"
Ava flipped back a few pages and scanned the lines until she found the answer. "Malachai Mason was born in 1946, has biochemistry and quantum physics degrees from Oxford, MIT, and the University of Berlin. Was on the Biochem board at Harvard, doing research until it became more profitable to be independently and privately funded by different parties."
"Where is the list of who was funding him?" Sara interrupted. Ava shuffled around a few papers and handed the right one to Sara.
"Looks like most of his early research was towards using stem cells to regain feeling and use in injured or regenerated limbs, but his later research projects were rather unsuccessful. Or unfruitful, at least." The Agent continued, eyes scanning the information. "No new patents or hiring in his lab for the last seven years of his life. His death was ruled a suicide in... 2032."
"The year we just took him back to." Sara noted.Interesting.
"Hmm." Ava nodded, finally glancing up from the papers in her lap. "Maybe the kid being gone did have some kind of effect on him."
Sara shrugged. She somehow couldn't manage to feel any remorse. Something caught her eye on the page. "You said there wasn't a lot of activity from him for the last seven years of his life, right? So that'd be 2027?"
"Yeah." Ava nodded. "Looks like he was paid out a bunch of money and he probably stopped working and used it as a retirement fund."
"According to these transactions, Mason got eleven separate payments of the same amount. Why split it up if it's all for personal use?" Sara frowned.
It certainly was peculiar, at least. "Who were the payments made by?"
Sara searched through the last couple pages. "H.O.O.T.: the Health Organization for Operant Transcendence."
The Agent quickly made her way behind her desk and typed the name into her Bureau Database. She scanned the screen, "They're all right here." She began, and after she saw the Captain stand to approach, waited until Sara was peering over her shoulder at the computer. "Founded in 2016, actually. So not that old just yet. Seems pretty legit; they'll go on to fund research on climate change in a few years."
Sara sighed as she turned to lean against the desk again. "So a dead end?"
"I wouldn't be so sure." Ava reminded herself of the direness of the case and the girl in danger as her mind started to drift off into dangerous thoughts. Dangerous thoughts like how impacient and adorably frustrated the other woman was. Suddenly Sara was too close. Ava took a step back from the computer. "We just have to keep looking. I'm sure there's something here that can tell us about the girl and the mad scientist." She gestured an empty hand to the now-opened files laying around her office. "We'll figure it out." Against her better judgement and before she could think clearly, Ava softly nudged the Captain with a playful and light elbow. The Agent chastised herself as she surpressed a blush at the way Sara's mood seemed to improve.
"You're right." She shook off her pout and looked up to the other woman. "Ava, thank you so much for helping me with all this. There's no way I could do this alone and the Legends are..."
"A mess." Ava nodded understandedly.
"I was gonna say busy." A characteristic Sara Smirk made an appearance and Ava had to take another small step backwards. "But I guess 'mess' works too. The night off was working well though, everybody just needed a bit of time to relax before getting back to this whole 'saving the entire timeline' thing."
"I am certainly glad to hear that, Captain Lance." Ava snapped back into a professional tone (okay, maybe even a happier professionalism--for Ava). "Because the Time Bureau has a mission for the Legends, and Director Hunter said you're going to like it."
Sara rolled her eyes. She supposed it was stupid of her to expect the Legends to do what they were told for once and go straight back to the ship. But abar? With akid? How did they even manage that? Sara cursed under her breath that if she found Juliette sitting somewhere on the street, abandonded, she'd channel her inner demon and havethemslowly murder each one of the culpable parties.
Right before she pushed past the Bouncer to the bar Gideon'd tracked them to, Sara scanned the building. No one was running and screaming from inside and the party seemed to be in full swing, so Sara supposed they at least hadn't started some huge bar fight. Yet. The Captain caught herself sighing with relief, then immediately afterward wondered whenshe'dbecome the responsible one.
Sara pulled her leather jacket forward and started toward the door. "Ma'am, I'm gonna need some ID." The Bouncer stepped in front of her smuggly. He had maybe a full foot on her and looked like he was about to do something gross.
The Captain easily dodged under his arm and kicked the back of his knee decisively, grumbling about how she "didn't have time for this" as he crumbled to the floor.
She pushed through the heavy metal door and immediately began her surveying of the space. It only needed a few seconds. It was a hole-in-the-wall sports bar with a considerable amount of activities for how small of a space it was. Sara immediately spotted Jax in a seat at the bar, flirting with some woman probably a few years older than him. The Captain rolled her eyes--she wasn't sure Jax was even old enough to drink yet. She walked further into the bar, on the way to start finding her teammates. Although she spotted Nate playing poole, which was on the left and closer, Sara made a bee-line to the roped off area in the back.
"What the hell is going on here?" Sara asked upon her arrival, mostly genuinely curious and more surprised than angry. She watched as Martin threw a dart across to the target on the wall, and being cheered on by Ray, Juliette, and a mysterious fourth participant when Martin's dart stuck in the rim of the board.
Juliette saw her first. The girl's face instantly brightened, unaware of the fear Sara inspired in the three grown men behind her. "Sara! Hello!" The Captain's frustration and surprise softened at the girl's warm welcome and the woman crossed her arms as she stepped over the rope, ignoring the lame protests from the Bouncers. "Do you want to play? It's called darts!" The girl told, fascinated.
"I don't think that'd be a fair match for anyone, kid." Ray forced a laugh.
The Captain ran a hand through her hair. "What are you guys doing here? I told you to go back to the ship?"
"Well, Mick was saying how it wasn't really fair that you got to go off with your girlfriend and we had to go stay on the ship... and we kinda agreed with him." Ray shrunk back at the woman's annoyed glare.
"First of all, Ava is not my girlfriend." Sara quickly denied, before sighing and moving on. "And second of all, okay? You don't go back to the ship, whyhere? Abar? With the kid?" She exsaperbated. "Andhow?"
"I'm not a kid." Juliette stated, already over how old that distinction was getting.
She was ignored. Martin bravely spoke up, "We're not really sure. I think Rory pointed a gun at him."
"Really?" Ray broke the intensity of the discussion with the Captain. "I thought he just threatened him."
"I'm pretty sure I saw him give him money." Juliette shrugged.
"How? We don't have any money." Ray countered.
The girl casually answered, "With the money from the restaurant."
"Thewhat?" Sara stopped the little chit-chat, "You guys didn't pay for dinner?"
"Well, technically, you didn't either." Ray noted.
"Whatever!" The Captain shouted angrily, then took a beat pinching her nose. "Whatever, it doesn't matter. Just-- Where's Mick? We gotta go."
A crash came from behind her and Sara didn't need to look to know what was happening. If they had been here a couple hours, they could've had a lot to drink by now. Sara rolled her eyes as she turned around, placing mental bets with herself about who was starting the fight. Of course, it was Mick who was standing over a guy that seemed unconscious on the ground.
Sara barked orders behind her. "Ray: get the kid out. Martin: get Nate and Jax. I'll get Mick. Meet outside in 5 and ready to run if this gets messy." As soon as the word left her mouth, the irony of 'messy' after being called it by Ava not even an hour before hit her. She guess'd Ava had been right, though she'dneveradmit that. Though this whole escape was unnecessary, Sara smiled. She liked the thrill of fights and narrow escapes and the adrenalin they brought with them.
A few minutes later, Sara smiled with satisfaction as she shoved Mick out the door, completing their rag-tag team as the only two missing members waiting in the alley. "Everyone here?" She didn't even bother counting heads. "Good. Lets go. We've got stuff to do."
"We got a new mission, Cap?" Jax asked as they started walking--or stumbling, for some.
Sara decided not to answer, but gave a signature smile instead and lead her team back to the Waverider.