Eight months later
Sara stood in line at the side of the stage at Kanigher-Broome High School, looking out over the crowd there for the graduation ceremony. Impossible, not to notice who wasn't there. She bit her lip, then sighed, pushing the feelings away.
"Pomp and Circumstance" was done playing, now, and the administrators and some teachers were assembling to actually hand out the diplomas. Sara, as usual, was about halfway back in the procession. In the audience, she could see Laurel and Oliver, dealing with any number of well-wishers during the ceremony lull. Felicity's streaming video had done a lot of good, but it'd also exposed their secret identities and they'd taken a bit of an earlier retirement from superheroing, though still establishing themselves as available as needed.
It wasn't a bad thing. Laurel could actually finish her law degree, and Oliver, to Sara's surprise, had decide to go to college too, majoring in political science. He was determined to be mayor of Star City one of these days. Sara looked forward to that.
Principal Hunter, on the stage, finally cleared his throat, and Sara looked up as the crowd quieted. His deputy principal (and, some said, girlfriend) Gideon Rider, rolled her eyes at him, then smiled, and announced the first name.
"Barry Allen, honors!"
Barry crossed the stage at a sedate pace, all things considered, accepting his diploma and shaking Hunter's hand. His secret identity, at least, had remained secret. His parents and uncle, in the audience, applauded, as did Iris' dad and brother, and Barry waved back, grinning.
Barry and his mentor, the Flash (who Sara now knew was his uncle, Jay Garrick) had carried Ray's pulse devices all over the city, crisscrossing it until they'd covered the whole thing even before Merlyn had tried to activate the Markov device under the Glades. Sara and the others had been sworn to secrecy about the speedsters, and Sara was pretty sure Barry had gotten some grief for revealing his identity—but considering the situation, not too much.
The names continued, friends, acquaintances and others Sara barely knew at all. She waited, moving forward a step at a time, occasionally glancing over her shoulder.
"Nathaniel Heywood, honors!"
"Jefferson Jackson, honors!"
"Amaya Jiwe, honors!"
Jax and Amaya had managed to warn and evacuate a number of the people in the Glades. Even if Merlyn's device had gone off, Sara thought, it was likely no one would have been killed. They'd earned accolades for that, and for their part in the whole thing. All of the group had.
Nate and Ray had helped track down the defunct Markov devices with some of the things they'd learned from the testing they'd done on the first one. Nate filming the experiments had helped after all.
One by one, students crossed the stage, claimed their diplomas, smiled for family and friends. And then:
"Sara Lance, honors!"
It was both satisfying and a bit unsettling how much the crowd cheered. Felicity's video had made its more heroic subjects into celebrities, and a clip of Sara kicking Malcolm Merlyn's ass had racked up an obscene amount of views of YouTube. Sara smiled, shaking Hunter's hand and then scanning…
Her dad was there, after all. He hadn't been before, but he was now, on his feet, clapping madly next to Laurel and Oliver. Something in Sara's heart lightened immeasurably, and she beamed back at them.
Quentin Lance had taken the events at the City Hall offices hard. Unsure how many of his thoughts and actions over the past few years had been his own, he'd resigned as commissioner, although he did agree to take part in a task force helping run the city until the next election. He hadn't slipped back into his workaholic ways, and Sara wondered now how much of that had been Merlyn, keeping him more isolated, apart from his family.
That man had a lot to answer for.
"Raymond Palmer, honors!"
Sara was actually a little concerned about Ray. His taste of heroism hadn't dulled his appetite for it at all—rather the opposite. She'd increasingly heard him talking about how non-supers could be heroes too. While Sara, of course, completely agreed, she also wasn't sure that the exosuit he kept going on about was really a good idea.
Still. Star City did need some new heroes.
"Felicity Smoak, honors!"
The crowd roared again. Felicity's hacking into City Hall and then broadcasting Malcolm Merlyn's "villain monologue" to the world had made her famous-and while her grades and other activities had already been quite good enough to get her into the college of her choice, that had caused a number to fight to give her scholarships. MIT had won.
Sara would miss her. But she had her own plans for college.
The audience was buzzing. Sara, watching from the other side of the stage, smiled. And then...
"Leonard Snart, honors!"
If the crowd had cheered happily for the rest of them, it went absolutely wild now with cheers, applause and a healthy share of wolf whistles. Ollie, who'd been thoroughly impressed with Len's actions at Merlyn's office, let out a whoop. Even Quentin Lance was clapping loudly, a smile on his face…and so were the three people to his other side. Sara did a double-take. She recognized them.
Leonard, a small smile on his face even though Sara knew he wasn't all that fond of the attention his exploits had gained him, crossed the stage, accepting his diploma with a dip of his head. He glanced toward her, his eyes lighting, and then out at the crowd…
Sara could tell the moment he saw his sister.
"Lenny!" Lisa yelled, hopping right up on her chair to wave before her foster mother made her get down. "Lenny!"
Leonard waved back, actually grinning, then continued toward the other side of stage, his eyes finding Sara's again.
He had a small scar on his shoulder even after his healing factor had kicked in and the gunshot wound had healed, and Sara knew it still ached a little at times. But he'd gone from Star City supervillain and semi-outcast son of Star City's most hated bad guy to its most beloved superhero, even though he'd taken a bit of an early retirement. Several community organizations had banded together to pay whatever of his upcoming college tuition and living expenses weren't covered by scholarships, and Leonard had requested anything beyond go into a fund for other families affected by his father's actions.
They were supposed to stay in alphabetic order as they moved back to their seats, but he ignored that rule, of course, moving to her side, reaching out to take her hand in his. The attention paid to how "romantic" it was that Leonard had managed to resist Merlyn's order to kill her unsettled both of them (it was weird to have strangers you'd never met "shipping" you) but their relationship had survived, and it had grown stronger.
Logically, Sara knew most high school relationships didn't last. She hoped this one would. But no matter what, she was pretty sure that, no matter what form it continued in—love or friendship or partnership-their bond would be a lasting one.
"Iris West, honors!" was the last to be called, and Iris winked as she joined them. There was already speculation that the Star City newspaper might be up for Pulitzer contention for how well it had unpacked the whole rise of Malcolm Merlyn after the fact, and Iris, even before graduation, had been in the thick of that.
And then Principal Hunter was clearing his throat again, looking out at them. The class looked up at him, many reaching up to move the tassels on their caps, but Sara just smiled at Leonard, watching him smile back, as the principal announced "Ladies and gentleman, members of the community….I give you the Kanigher-Broome High School class of 2019!"
With shouts and yells and cries of glee, hundreds of grad caps were launched into the air. It had, Sara thought with amusement, been quite a year. But they'd made it through.
Somehow, they'd made it through.
There was one other face that hadn't been in the crowd, but both Sara and Len saw it nearly as soon as they emerged onto the front lawn, where a sort of reception had been set up.
Mick Rory, looking uncomfortable in a dress shirt and pants, stood there, his hands stuffed in his pockets, but he actually smiled when he saw them, and Leonard suffered a bear hug that he didn't even complain about much. Sara got along really well with Mick, but he still insisted on being a little formal with her—so she was quite pleased when she got a quick hug too.
Mick had been pardoned of the earlier charges against him and was now studying for his GED with Ray and Nate's "help." In fact, the latter two were moving in with Mick at the house that he and Leonard had once shared—and while Len bemoaned the state the place would probably be in when he visited, Sara thought it might be good for all three of them.
"Lenny!"
Leonard turned just in time for a 10-year-old girl to hurl herself into his arms. Sara smiled as he wrapped his arms around his sister, nodded to Lisa's foster parents, whom she'd met a time or two, and turned toward her own father, who reached out and enveloped her in his arms.
For a long moment, he just held her, and Sara held him. Some of their wounds, she thought, were finally healing.
Eventually, Quentin Lance loosened his grip on his younger daughter, smiling down at her. "Baby, I'm so sorry I was late; their train was late getting in," he said, waving toward Lisa and her foster family. "Figured they really had to be here. We wanted to surprise him." He cleared his throat, downplaying it. "But, I did get to see you walk across the stage and get that diploma. I'm so proud of you."
Then, a deep breath. "And your mom would be, too."
Sara felt tears welling up. "Thanks, dad."
Quentin Lance wasn't precisely fond of the fact that his baby girl was moving to Central City for college, nor that her boyfriend (no matter how much he decided he actually liked the former delinquent) was going to the same school. But he was also proud, and that usually won out.
Sara had decided to major in social work and was going to be taking part in a special degree program that meant that she would be working with Central City University, STAR Labs there, and those friends of Amaya's (a group called the Justice League of America that included both powered and nonpowered heroes), to create a support network for supers and a legal framework for their protection. Laurel would be helping with that, as would Oliver, via the Queen family fortune, and so would Leonard when he wasn't busy with his own legal studies.
Malcom Merlyn had caused so much pain in the city. It would probably drive him nuts that he'd indirectly wound up causing so much good, too. Sara wondered if she could get someone to visit Iron Heights and tell him.
As Quentin wandered over to talk to Lisa and her foster family, and Ray and Nate came over to talk to Mick, and Laurel and Oliver quarreled good-naturedly about their own plans for an apartment together, Sara turned to see Leonard sauntering toward her. He'd already gotten rid of his cap and robe and looked quite handsome in his black dress shirt and pants, although she'd kidded him earlier about how he'd swelter in the June heat.
"I never swelter," he'd drawled at her, using his "Captain Cold" voice for the first time in months. "I'm Cold." Sara had rolled her eyes so hard they'd hurt, but she'd smiled, too.
He was smiling now.
"Are you OK?" he asked her, reaching out to put his hands on her arms, pulling her toward him. Sara studied him, then smiled back. It had certainly been a senior year to remember.
"I'm all right," she said, quoting. "Really. Thanks."
And Sara Lance kissed Leonard Snart there in full view of her family and friends and his, barely hearing her father sigh and Oliver and Mick wolf-whistle and Laurel and Lisa giggle.
It was, she thought, good to be her.
