"Oh please tell me that's a ghost," Jax said one night as he lay wide-awake in bed. He'd been hearing the ceiling creak above him for the past ten minutes or so but he was hoping that it was just the house settling or something, and sure he'd heard some muffled voices but he'd told himself that Kendra and Ray were just talking, but now that he heard a very distinct moan he was running out of lies to tell himself.
"Not a chance," Len replied from his own bed on the other side of the room, "But I'm suddenly very grateful that the walls on the ship are soundproof."
"Man, I thought their bed was on the other side of the room!" Jax exclaimed in annoyance.
"It is, they're not in it." Len said and Jax sat up in bed to look incredulously at him as the older man lay in his bed listening carefully to the sounds above them with a calculating look on his face.
The ceiling was only creaking now and then, certainly not as much as Len figured it would be if both of his upstairs neighbors were shifting around. Of course Kendra might be light and smart enough to keep her movement to a minimum detection, but considering he'd bet that moan came out of her he doubted that theory for the most part.
"Raymond has her against a wall, my bet is her feet are off the ground so they'll probably only last a few more minutes before-" He cut himself off as the sound of footsteps above them clumsily moved closer to his half of the room before they faded away. "They're in bed," he concluded, and Jax just flopped back down with a disgusted look on his face.
"What's the matter kid? Can't handle living below your sister and her husband?" Len teased, he was propped up on his elbow at this point and upon hearing the question Jax sat right back up.
"Ok one, she is not my sister! Two, her and Ray are not married!" He exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at his roommate.
"So it's true? You do have a thing for her?" Len asked and Jax just looked away.
"I don't-"
"Please, like I couldn't figure out what Gideon was going to say when Rip congratulated you on repairing the ship the last time we crashed." Len cut him off and so he just sighed in defeat. Len adjusted himself to sit crisscross on his bed; at this point neither of them was going to sleep any time soon. "Personally I don't know what she sees in Raymond,"
"Dude if this is your idea of a pep talk-"
"But I will say this," Len interrupted Jax's interruption, "From what I know you and Kendra were both more or less thrown into this… insanity by your partners, you're both still trying to figure out what to do with your powers. Bottom line Jax, the two of you are just a little too much alike." He advised and Jax considered the words but they didn't quite make sense in his head.
"I though being alike was usually a good thing?" He asked,
"Depends," Len answered, "Sometimes it is; sometimes two people do need to be alike in order for things work. I'm not so sure about you, but Kendra I think needs someone who came into this willingly, and no offence but considering the old man had to drug and kidnap you I'm guessing that you're the farthest thing from that." It may have sounded cold and blunt, but Jax could tell that in his own way Leonard Snart was actually trying to help him.
"What are you some kind of love expert all of a sudden?" He asked and Len just glared at him, but before he could say anything in a reply a knock came from the outside of their door. The two exchanged glances and looked at their clock, what was someone doing at their door at 12:30 in the morning? "Come in," Jax finally responded and the door opened to reveal a very ticked off looking Sara all but storming in.
"I am going to go up there and kill them," she announced as she shut the door behind her and Len gave a smirk.
"So it's your room that their bed is above?" He asked knowingly, he had all but cased the house when they first moved in out of habit; it's what he does when put into a new surrounding. So he knew that the attic was fairly large and obviously ran over most of the second floor, he also remembered helping Ray assemble the bed in question and suggested it's location, not telling Ray that the only reason he cared enough to help was simply to make sure that he and Jax weren't right below them.
"Yes, and normally I can take it but they won't shut up!" Sara exclaimed, "They're usually pretty quick but they're really going for it tonight. It wouldn't be so bad if they weren't so freaking loud." She continued to vent and Jax flopped back down with a groan, in absolutely no mood to hear about this.
"You can get your revenge on them later, but don't kill them. Rip needs Kendra in order to kill Savage," Len said to Sara who looked down at him with her arms folded.
"Can I kill Ray?" She asked and Len seemed to at least pretend to consider the idea.
"I won't stop you," he answered and she chuckled. She just stood there for a few more seconds and was about to head back to her room, despite how much she didn't want to, when Len pretty much read her mind. "I get the feeling you don't want to spend the night listening to those two, so if you want you're welcome to sleep in here." He offered and she smiled before climbing next to him in his bed as he made room.
"I swear if I look over there-"
"Don't worry Jax, I think Kendra and Ray have ruined that for awhile." Sara smirked as she made herself comfortable.
"Morning," Kendra greeted her friends as she usually does when she walked into the kitchen for breakfast, Ray not far behind her.
The others were all in there as usual and going about their morning business. Rip was standing impatiently by the coffee pot while Jax shoveled cereal into his mouth, trying to finish his breakfast before he would be late for work. Sara was lazily stirring her own cereal around in her bowl (they have milk now since adding a refrigerator to the house), a sign that she was just about done. Stein was sitting there with the newspaper while Len filed through the cabinets for the jar of jelly so he could use it on his toast.
"Good morning," Stein greeted, not once taking his eyes off his paper.
"You two have fun making babies last night?" Sara questioned with a completely strait face, not even looking up from her breakfast.
At the question both Ray and Kendra's eyes went about a mile wide and their faces fire truck red, not that anyone noticed once Jax started choking.
"Jefferson," Stein said in concern as he lightly hit his young partner on the back in an attempt to help him get the air back into his lungs.
"We told you not to eat so fast," Len drawled as he took his seat at the table, "we're out of jelly," he continued as if now were an appropriate time to inform the others of this.
"I gotta go to work," Jax said, barely having caught his breath as he pushed away from the table and left for work.
"Is there something someone wants to tell me?" Rip questioned the rest of the group just as they heard the front door close behind Jax.
"Well uh… I think Snart already said it, we're out of jelly." Ray awkwardly stuttered out, somewhat recovering from his embarrassment.
"Sleep in my room for a night, you'll know exactly what we're talking about." Sara said as she got up and placed her bowl in the sink.
"You can hear us?" Kendra asked the blonde; apparently she and Ray were unaware of how loud they really are.
"We can all hear you," Len informed her, "but last night you actually disturbed Sara out of her room." He continued and if it's possible for Kendra's cheeks to grow any redder they did.
"Yeah, I had to camp out in Jax and Snart's room." Sara added, turning around and leaning against the sink.
"Ok stop, stop." Rip ordered, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I can't believe I even have to tell you this, because I thought I could trust you all to be mature adults on this mission, but if you're going to be… engaging in night time activities-"
"Screwing," Len simplified Rip's term.
"Please try and keep it down and PLEASE make sure you use protection," he warned before eyeing Sara then Kendra with a serious look, "If one of you were to fall pregnant I may actually have to leave you here. Time jumping has unpleasant effects on the body already, as you all know, but time jumping while pregnant is extremely dangerous." He warned them, hoping that just this once his team would listen to him.
"Don't worry Rip, we're being careful." Kendra assured him,
"And you don't have to worry about me, I haven't been with a guy in two years." She said smugly, as if she were proud that it was mainly miss goody two shoes that was being warned about sex and not her.
"Just saying," Rips told her, trying to drop the matter.
"Well, fun as this conversation has been, I have to get to work too." Ray said before giving Kendra a quick kiss on the cheek and hurrying out the door, not even bothering to try eating breakfast after that.
"Did we get everything?" Stein asked Sara, it was their turn to get the groceries and after spending almost an hour in the store it finally looked like they had everything.
"I think so," Sara replied and so they approached the register.
"Hello Ingrid," Stein said with a smile to the old woman at the register who Sara and Jax had met on their first day. They had been living in 1986 for almost three months now and Stein had established a friendship with the cashier.
"Hello Martin, Sara, how are you today?" She asked sweetly like she always did.
"Very well, and you?" Stein asked and the woman smiled her usual warm smile.
"Can't complain, how's the business going?" She asked and Stein just smiled,
"It's going, my partner and I are still trying to find a suitable office but it's going." He replied and Sara couldn't help but huff out a small laugh under her breath, even after three months that mystery business of Rip and Stein's was still as big of a mystery as it was the day they made their cover.
"Well Mr. Reynolds has been talking about selling the antique shop downtown," Ingrid began to suggest.
"Oh you're kidding!?" Stein asked in apparent shock but Ingrid shook her head.
"Low business," she explained, "But you really should talk to him about the building," she suggested, by now she had finished ringing them up and Stein had paid for the groceries and so the two were just standing there talking while Sara gathered up the bags.
"Oh yes I will, it's very unfortunate about Mr. Reynolds but the building would be perfect!" He exclaimed, a little too enthusiastically for Sara's liking.
"Hey, dad," she interrupted, getting his attention. "I hate to rush you but we really should get back, remember that thing out in the field?" She asked, cocking her head towards the door.
"What happened to your field?" Ingrid asked, knowing that the family lived on the outskirts of town with a rather large field behind their house, she could only imagine what some kids might have left there as a prank.
"Yes um, a tree came down the other day, an old one on the very edge of the woods and landed in the field. Sara and I promised to help Raymond with removing it." He excused before he took on of the grocery bags from Sara, "It was nice to see you Ingrid, have a nice day." He said before noticing that his 'daughter' was already halfway out the exit.
"Do you know what you were acting like in there?" Stein scolded Sara as they drove through town, her sitting in the passenger seat.
"What?" She asked, completely confused.
"In the store, I was trying to have a polite conversation and you were acting like a… like a teenager!" He exclaimed in what actually appeared to be true annoyance, "You were acting like a selfish teenager who couldn't wait to get home for absolutely no reason whatsoever!" He continued to reprimand but to his surprise Sara actually snorted out a laugh.
"Sorry I didn't mean to interrupt your date," she joked but when she saw the expression on Stein's face her laughter died. "Oh my god," she said it with a sudden repulsion.
"Now Sara it's not-"
"You do remember you're married right?" She cut him off and he sighed,
"Before I left Clarissa and I may have gotten into a bit of an argument," he admitted, his voice very apprehensive.
"You're the one who told me not to get attached to Lindsay." Sara said, choosing not to force Stein to delve deeper into the obvious issues he and his wife have.
"You were leaving 1958," he said and he fully expected her to start yelling about how they're leaving 1986 eventually, but she didn't. Instead she just slumped down in her seat with her arms folded across her chest, allowing the rest of the car ride to be filled with a heavy silence.
"Did you get-?" Len didn't have the chance to finish his sentence; Sara stormed into the kitchen, placed her grocery bag on the counter, and stormed off. Presently it was himself and Kendra in the kitchen, Raymond and Rip were out at the Waverider, and Jax was still at work. "What happened to her?" He asked instead when Stein came into the room, looking just as confused as Kendra and himself.
"I don't know," he admitted, "Apparently it was my conversation with Ingrid but I can't for the life of me understand why." He continued; Sara and him both know that he isn't really her father so he couldn't understand why his interest in Ingrid had such an effect on her.
"What did you say to her?" Kendra asked,
"Nothing!" Stein defended, "She asked about the business and I gave a very vague answer as always, she mentioned something about Mr. Reynolds selling his shop and then Sara told me it was time to go." He explained and Kendra groaned.
"I'm sick of this," she muttered, "It's bee three months and still the most random things are setting her off." She continued,
"Someone should talk to her," Len suggested and Kendra nodded.
"I would but I fear that I am the one that she is upset with," Stein said,
"And I have to leave for work in a few minutes." Kendra excused, eyeing Len with a pleading look and reluctantly he sighed a long sigh before grabbing two beers from the fridge and heading out of the kitchen.
When he got upstairs he was surprised to find Sara's door open, and even more surprised to find her not there when he stepped inside. He almost turned around and left, when he noticed that her window was open and remembered that there was a bit of an overhang of roof outside her room. He crossed the room and looked out the window, unsurprised to find her sitting on the roof with her knees drawn to her chest and staring out at the field in the distance.
"Good thing the cloaking didn't break," He joked as he climbed through the window and offered her a beer.
"Isn't it a little early to be drinking?" She asked with a smirk but she accepted the bottle nonetheless.
"I'm not good at talking without a crutch," he told her honestly and she smirked as she uncapped her drink and took a swig.
"Me either," she admitted, "You here to tell me I'm acting like a baby?" She questioned but he shook his head and took a sip of his own drink.
"I'm here because I suggested someone talk to you and I'm the only one who couldn't find an excuse to get out of it." He explained, again his voice was honest.
"In that case let's not and say we did," She suggested but Len wouldn't let her off the hook so easily.
"Stein says you pulled him away from hitting on the cashier?" He asked, knowing full well that the Professor has a thing for the old woman.
"If he's not careful he'll get caught up here," she defended with another sip of her beer. When Len was silent she took it as a cue to keep going, "You know it's funny," she began, "The Waverider is busted pretty much beyond repair, and a part of me wants to keep reminding myself that we're never getting out of here. But it's been so long since I had roots anywhere that I keep asking myself, why the hell haven't I packed a bag and left yet?" When she looked over at Len he knew she was asking him for an answer, and she didn't expect him to have one. But he did, because ever since Mick she's become the person that he's closest to on the team, which is probably why she trusts him with this.
"The mission must have been perfect for you," he mused, "The team, the same people day in and day out, like some kind of makeshift family. But the places change all the time, only half a sense of permanence; I'll bet that's just what you needed." He continued and at first she appeared to be surprised by his observation before she looked down at her bottle and began absentmindedly stirring around the liquid inside.
"You'd win that bet," she finally admitted after a long beat of silence, "Traveling alone trying to figure everything out, it was too lonely. But staying in Star City…" she trailed off, looking for the right way to phrase it. "It was just too much," she eventually decided on and Len nodded.
"You want to know why you haven't run off yet?" He asked and for a moment she looked a little surprised, she hadn't actually expected him to come up with an answer. "It's because you're getting better," he told her, "You found the peace for your bloodlust in 1958, you have control of it, and so while your old instincts are telling you to run you're thinking that while you don't necessarily want to do it in 1986 putting down roots somewhere someday might not be the worst thing." He explained and her surprised face only grew before she replaced it with her mask of indifference by taking another sip of her beer.
"Leonard Snart has a soft side, who knew?" She mocked and he chuckled just a little.
"We got Gideon working again," Jax announced excitedly as he entered his and Len's room after another two and a half months of being stranded in 1986.
"That's great!" Sara congratulated from her seat on Snart's bed, looking up from her cards to talk to him.
Jax smiled at her, by now this room was as much hers as it was his. It had started that night a few months ago when Ray and Kendra were exceptionally loud during the night and so she slept in Snart's bed. He could never be sure of when exactly but something happened between the crook and the assassin after that day. She'd come in again a few nights later, saying that although they weren't being as loud she could still hear the upstairs neighbors and it was very unnerving to fall asleep to. It wasn't long before she stopped giving a reason every time she came crawling into Snart's bed in the middle of the night. Usually Jax would wake up upon hearing her enter and after confirming it was her he'd roll over and go right back to sleep. At some point he stopped waking up when she entered and wasn't even surprised when he'd wake up in the morning and find one more person in the room than there was when he went to sleep. As the weeks went on there were nights that she got dressed for bed but came strait to his and Snart's room to hang out and never left. If he was being honest, he liked her hanging out in there so much. They'd become better friends ever since she and Snart started… well whatever it is that they call it. If he didn't know better he would say they're dating but unfortunately he does know better. They give off that vibe you get in high school from the two of your friends who everyone knows should be a couple, and really the only reason they aren't is probably because they're having too much fun with the chase.
"Good job kid," Snart praised in a slightly distracted voice before her laid down his cards.
"Full house," he declared with a smirk and with a growl Sara handed him the five lollipops that had been lying next to her.
"Where'd you get lollipops?" Jax asked with sudden interest, his roommates (because at this point Sara pretty much shared that title) had stopped playing for money after one night when Sara kicked Len's ass three games in a row and so he resorted to betting the cookies that he hides in the storage bin under his bed.
"It was Ray's turn to go grocery shopping and he found a big bag on the clearance shelf," Sara explained and Snart held one out to him.
"Here, since you were busy when we stole them." He offered and Jax took the piece of candy.
"Thanks," he said before heading over to his side of the room to change into his pajamas.
Six months, four days, three hours, fifteen minutes, and twenty-two seconds. That's how long the team spent in 1986 before the Waverider was finally declared suitable to fly. They took one last day in the time period before they set off to say their goodbyes to any friends they'd made and leave their jobs for those of them who had ended up working (this was all to Rip's discontent of course but when his entire team refused to leave without saying goodbye he didn't have much of a choice). They left late at night, boarding the Waverider and despite all having ventured onto the ship numerous times in the past six months it still felt as surreal as it did the first time they ever set foot on the time ship.
"Alright, now if we're done I've been waiting six months to say this so strap yourselves in," Rip said in an uncharacteristically chipper voice but the team obeyed without protest and found their seats.
"You know I'm actually going to miss 1986," Kendra commented as she pulled down her restraints.
"Me too," Jax agreed
"Well fun as this has been we are going back a long time from now, Gideon was able to pull some files and locate Vandal Savage in 1803 so it's going to be a long jump." Rip announced as he set the course.
"Great," Sara moaned upon hearing that they'd be jumping back almost two hundred years.
"I don't know, I've kind of missed going blind every time we land." Ray said and although it was obvious that he was being sarcastic his bright smile took away from the effect.
"Well considering how far we're going you shouldn't be disappointed doctor Palmer," Rip said and with that he pulled the lever controls and they were off.
Author's Note: I had a lot of fun writing this two-parter but there are a lot of ideas that didn't make it in so although these two parts will stay here with the one shots I've decided to take this idea and turn it into a full length fic! Big thanks to starfire25 for the idea and for permission to go ahead with making it a full length fic, hopefully i'll have it up soon!
BTW: Just a quick thing about Stein's wife, it kind of bothers me that he puts his superhero work before her all the time without any second thoughts and apparently in the comics it drove her into filing for divorce so that's why i said that they had a fight, because i honestly can't imagine that after all the times he's left her already i can't imagine she reacted well to the idea of him going on a mission through time.
