You and I Collide

Epilogue 1: Legends Never Die

xXx

After sitting through a thirty minute debate between Wells and Cisco on whether this was really over, ("I'm just saying, it's a little anticlimactic." "It's not a movie Ramon!") Sara encouraged her team to say their goodbyes before ushering them back onto the waverider. There was a lot of work to do, between aberrations and tracking down what really happened to Rip; they were going to be busy for sometime.

"But first things first." She thought as she set down in a time pocket.

"What are we doing here?" Jax asked.

"None of us have gotten much sleep, or much of a break for that matter. Take the weekend and in forty-eight hours we'll head out again." Sara explained, leaving the Captain's chair and heading for the door. "Oh and Gideon," Sara stopped short of the door.

"Yes, Captain."

"No one leaves the ship without my permission. We're here to relax not create more work for ourselves."

"Understood, Captain."

With that she turned on her heels and walked out.

xXx

Sara had taken over the Captain's quarters the first time they had lost Rip. When they thought he had returned, she had stayed put, always working under the assumption that her stepping down was temporary. At the moment, she was glad she did. Having her own shower was by far the best. With no one else waiting to use it, she stayed under the warm spray until she couldn't stand it anymore.

"Len?" Sara questioned as she stepped out of the bathroom, running a towel through her hair. Leonard turned from the wall where he was studying the various pictures she kept tacked up.

"Hope you don't mind my dropping in." he told her and she knew she wasn't imagining the way he looked her over. "I know you must be exhausted." he told her.

Sara hummed. "Dr. Wells seems to think that's because of the dimension hopping. Apparently you aren't supposed to go from one to the next to the next successively."

"He would know I suppose. Other than that how are you feeling?"

Sara shrugged. "Just… heavy, I guess is the word for it. I can't stop thinking about everything I need to do, everything we need to do." she paused, tossing the towel back into the bathroom. "We still need to talk." she eventually continued.

"We do." he replied simply. His way of leaving it open for her. She appreciated that, because in truth, despite acknowledging her feelings internally, she wasn't entirely sure how to acknowledge them verbally. It was a lot easier with Nyssa. They just sort of knew, in an instinctive way that came with their training, but Leonard wasn't an assassin and for that matter, she wasn't anymore either.

"I suppose if we talk now, that'll be one less thing I'll be thinking about while I try to sleep."

"A sound plan."

Sara sighed, collapsing onto the bed, almost bonelessly. "I guess I'll just get to the point. I'm not...afraid. I mean, I am, but I don't want it to stop me, stop us." she stumbled over the words. "I just… I know that these things are a part of life and there was a time when I wouldn't have hesitated to pick things up again, but I'm not that naive little girl anymore. And I've been hurt a lot. I guess it's like that old saying, once bitten , twice shy."

Leonard didn't respond immediately, making sure she was finished. He sat down beside her. "There was a time in my life, not very long ago, in fact, that I would have thought myself weak, scoffed at these feelings. Now I can't stop thinking about how much I want to punch that guy in the face."

Sara snorted. "Now there's a fight I'd pay to see."

Leonard smirked. He sighed. "I think..I think you deserve better, but I'm a crook, I'm selfish, and I'm selfish enough to fight for you anyway."

"Selfish huh?" Sara questioned. She tried not to smile, looking away. "The truth is, I'm selfish enough to want you to."

xXx

With Sara curled up under his arm beside him and the ship almost completely silent, Leonard Snart closed his eyes, ready to drift off to sleep.

He would not be so lucky.

The last few days kept playing over and over in his mind, more specifically his earth 50 counterpart. At first the realization that he had turned out just like his father was painful, but then he stopped to really examine what he had learned. Something just didn't add up.

By all accounts his doppelganger loved his sister, but if he was as much like Lewis as people said, he should have been incapable of loving anyone. That being said, why go to all the trouble of resurrecting someone you didn't love, sister or not.

And then there was the scene itself. Lisa's body was nowhere to be found, only Lance cowering in the corner and his own doppelganger dead on the floor. Well, nearly dead. Apparently he had still been clinging to life and was now in a coma. The general consensus seemed to be a certain kind of hope that he wouldn't wake up. A small part of Leonard hoped he would, there was more going on here than met the eye.

"My deepest apologies for waking you Captain, Mr. Snart." Gideon spoke softly so as not to startle them. Sara groaned, burying her face into his side.

"What is it, Gideon?" Leonard asked, rubbing gentle circles into her back.

"I have located Captain Hunter." she told them and Sara peaked up at the ceiling. It concerned Leonard to see her so pale. Gideon had warned him earlier while she was in the shower that Sara suffered from what the Time Masters had called Inter-dimensional Sickness. Her body wasn't given enough time to get used to the different vibrational frequencies of each earth and now she was overloaded. It usually began with extreme exhaustion and later, achiness, migraines and lethargy. So far she'd skipped the worst of lethargy.

"Where is he?" Sara asked, rolling over onto her back.

"Outside the ship, requesting entry for he and his new crew."

"New crew?" Sara questioned and Leonard sighed. He had a feeling he knew where this was going. "Let him in, Gideon, but only if you're sure it's really him."

"I am sure, Captain. And I must insist to both you and Captain Hunter that this reunion remain brief. If you are to make a full recovery you must rest and I am certain whatever Captain Hunter has to say to all of you will not be conducive to that."

"Understood Gideon."

xXx

Rip had cut his hair down and traded his brown leather trailblazer for a dark blue suit. He and his team, a serious looking blonde woman and a guy who looked ridiculously uncomfortable, looked more like feds than Time Masters. Which was apparently the point.

They were called the Time Bureau now and Rip was offering them an ultimatum. Join the bureau or go home. They wouldn't be allowed to run around unchecked anymore, not now that the gap the Time Masters left was filled.

"I don't expect an answer right this moment, especially since it's obvious that something big happened while I was away." Rip explained, cutting a concerned expression toward Sara. "Anyone want to fill me in?"

"Myself and the rest of the crew can answer that, but now that your proposal is finished, I must insist that Captain Lance return to bed. By my estimation she has another thirty-six hours of bed rest before she is returned to some semblance of normal."

Leonard moved to her side and helped her out of her chair.

"What happened?" The awkward agent, Gary, asked.

"It appears to be Inter-dimensional sickness." Rip replied. "You've jumped from one dimension to the next too quickly."

"How do you always manage to make a statement of facts sound judgy?" Sara asked.

"It's the accent."

xXx

"What do you think they'll do?" Gary asked sometime later. They were alone in the library now and Rip had been staring at the shelves, trying to wrap his mind around everything they'd told him.

"What do you mean?" Rip questioned.

"I mean, do you think any of them will stay?"

"Mr. Snart and Mr. Rory will more than likely leave and I can't really blame them, not after everything they've been through because of the Time Masters. Professor Stein is clearly homesick and he and Mr. Jefferson cannot be separated for more than a few days. I can't speak for Mr. Haywood, I don't know him well enough. Dr. Palmer will stay. He's got a fanciful imagination and a good heart, he'll be excited by the prospect of being a time traveling g-man. Miss Jiwe will need to return to her own time soon, no matter what. Her family is far too import to the timeline to risk disrupting it."

"And what about Captain Lance?" Gary asked.

"She'll stay."

"You're so sure of that." Ava spoke for the first time.

"Captain Lance is one of the finest people I've ever worked with and what's more, her team chose her to lead them, she didn't just step up. They saw her and they flocked around her. She cares about them, she treats this team like family. The agency could only benefit from someone like her."

"But what if she doesn't stay?" Ava asked.

"She will." Rip replied. "She need this life just as much as it needs her."

xXx

"Can I tell you something without freaking you out?" Sara asked. She was sitting against the headboard eating the food Gideon had fabricated for her specifically to help combat the inter-dimensional sickness. Leonard was perched on the chair in front of her desk, keeping a careful eye on her.

"I'm not so easily 'freaked out'." he replied.

Sara smiled. "The last earth we were on, it was… the kind of earth we lived on before we all realized that extraordinary things were possible. No powers, no vigilantes, no aliens. Completely normal." she told him. "We ran into one of your doppelgangers, he was a cop, a detective.

Leonard snorted. "You sure this wasn't a fever dream?"

Sara laughed. "Positive. Anyway, he was trying to get home, desperate to get to his family, to make sure they were alright. So we helped him and when we got there we met his wife and daughters."

"It was your doppelganger, right?" he asked.

Sara nodded. "Growing up, I had an idea of where I wanted my life to go. College, possibly med school, marriage, kids. And because of the Gambit, that one stupid decision, I'll never have all that. I'd actually forgotten about it until that moment."

"You want that again, do you? Some semblance of a normal life, or at least the part of it that would easily mix with your not so normal life."

"Maybe it was seeing all of our doppelgangers together, but, I can honestly say I see that with you. So, I want you to know that now that we've talked and we've figured things out, I'm in. I'm all in. And maybe we make it to that and maybe we don't, but I want you to know that I'm not going anywhere until you tell me your sick of me."

Leonard stood from his chair and slid onto the bed beside to her. "I could never get sick of you." he told her.

Sara smirked. "I don't know about that, I mean, you've never seen how much hair I leave in the shower drain."

Leonard snorted, smiling as he leaned into kiss her.

xXx

2 Days later

"I appreciate you all putting up with us these last few days." Rip said over dinner. He'd never admit it out loud, but it was nice to be apart of this family again, even temporarily.

"Yeah, well, guess we should be thanking you for waiting around." Jax replied.

Rip brushed it off and they proceeded to eat.

"Wow, it's almost like old times." Sara's voice sounded sometime later. They all turned to look, finding her standing in the doorway. Her complexion was back to normal and she was much more surefooted. Everyone was happy to see her as she joined them at the table, grabbing a plate for herself. For the first time in what felt like forever, things felt normal. Just a group of friends having dinner, sharing stories.

When all was said and done and everything cleaned up, they found themselves in Sara's office.

"So, what will it be?" Rip asked of them.

"I have enjoyed my time here. It's been an irreplaceable experience, but I think it's time I went home. It's time I was there for my wife and daughter." Professor Stein explained.

"And since we can't be apart for very long, I'd like to give this school thing a try." Jax added.

"Speaking of school, I should probably get back to my students." Nate replied.

"And my village." Amaya added.

"Ray?" Rip questioned.

"I wouldn't mind sticking around. There's not much waiting for me back in Star City." Ray answered, that air of excitement circling around him.

Leonard and Mick shared a look. "We're gonna have to opt out." Leonard explained and judging by the look on Rip's face he wasn't surprised. All attentions turned to Sara then.

She sighed. "It's been an honor to be here, to do this work, but I'm going to have to pass too. It's time to go home.