I'm baaaaaack! Finally. I didn't mean for it to take this long, but I've been crazy busy. I forgot to say this on the last chapter, but thank you all SO much for the Best WIP nomination. Idk if the award has been announced yet or not, but I'm so honored and grateful for the support. It means so, so much to me. Thank you!
Life continued after the Markov device went off. The day after the earthquakes destroyed half the city — the half containing the Markov device they hadn't been able to disarm — restoration projects immediately began.
The team at S.T.A.R. Labs — including Sara and Avery — were still at Leonard's safe house in the mountains of Central City, waiting until it was safe enough to return.
"Iris," Barry called from the kitchen a few days after the Markov device went off, "Turn the news on."
Iris switched the TV from a primetime comedy show to the news channel, which was showing a shaky video of Malcolm Merlyn being led handcuffed by several cops through a throng of reporters and cameramen up to the police precinct. The day of the earthquake, Merlyn was caught by the Star City police at the train station. They had been alerted to what he had done and were waiting when he arrived.
"We've seen this a hundred times, Barry," Iris replied.
She was right. News of what had happened in Central City was being reported on nearly every channel, and once it was rumored that Merlyn was the one responsible for it, his face was dragged along with it.
"I read online that Tommy Merlyn's finally gonna make a statement about what happened," Barry explained.
"About time," Sara said as she entered the room carrying Avery, "How many days has it been? Two? Three?"
Avery angrily rubbed her eyes with her fist. She had just woken from a long nap and was clearly not happy about it.
"Daily bubble," she grumpily chanted, "Daily bubble, daily bubble."
"In a second, Avery," Sara replied, sitting her on a barstool at the counter and moving to stand behind the couch, "Mommy's just gotta watch something important right now."
Not too long after, the news reporter announced Tommy's press conference and the screen switched to Tommy Merlyn standing at a podium in the lobby of the Merlyn Global Group headquarters.
He looked much more professional than Sara was used to, having ditched his usual henley t-shirt and jeans for a slick black suit and tie.
"Hello," he said, looking into the camera, "I'm Tommy Merlyn and I'm here to address the actions of my father, Malcolm Merlyn, CEO of Merlyn Global Group. We all know of the terror that has happened in Central City. I would like to come forth and admit that the rumors are true. My father is the perpetrator."
He paused for a moment, waiting for the buzz from the reporters to die down.
"We are still currently undergoing investigations, but we suspect that this was planned several months to a year in advance and involved at least one accomplice, including an engineer who designed the machine that caused the earthquakes. He called it a Markov device, and we found the remains of one on the east side of Central City, which caused the damage. Members of the CCPD also found a disabled Markov device in a highway service tunnel on the west side of the city. We owe a lot of gratitude to the anonymous heroes who shut off that machine."
"Way to go, Sara," Iris said, giving her a high-five.
"I think I should put 'anonymous hero' on my resume now," Sara joked.
"I just want to make one thing very clear," Tommy continued, "This was an act of terror. This was a premeditated terrorist attack committed by my father in the hopes that you all — the citizens of Central City — would be scared into compliance —"
"Daily bubble," Avery whined.
"One second," Sara mouthed to her, "Please."
"— This does not reflect the overall views of Merlyn Global Group, and to help make up for my father's actions, we would like to donate our money and our time to restore your city. We will do whatever it takes to make up for what was lost on that night."
Tommy nodded once and then the news reporter returned, already introducing the next segment.
They were all silent for a moment.
"Well," Harry finally said, "That went better than I expected."
"Do you really think he's gonna follow through?" Cisco asked, "Do you think he'll actually get the company to pay to fix what Merlyn did?"
"Sara, he's your brother-in-law," Caitlin said, "What d'you think?"
"Tommy's definitely not the brightest guy I know, but I do know that once he starts something, he refuses to give up until he succeeds — it's probably how he ended up marrying my sister —"
"It's time for the daily bubble now!" Avery shouted, her eyes wide. Several of the people in the room looked over to her in surprise at her sudden outburst.
"Alright," Sara said, running a hand through her hair in frustration, "My darling child, we'll do the daily bubble. Let's go."
"No, I want Lenny to do it."
Sara raised one eyebrow.
"I invented the daily bubble. Lenny stole that from me," she said. Avery put one hand on her hip and fixed her mother with the sassiest expression she could muster, "He did, and anyway, you're outta luck. You know Lenny and Lisa are at the grocery store."
Avery hopped off her stool and started running towards the stairs.
"I'm gonna go wait for them," she called over her shoulder as she grabbed the railing and started to climb up the staircase.
"Of course you are," Sara muttered under her breath. She collapsed on the couch next to Iris, sighing heavily.
"You good?" Iris asked.
"Yeah," she replied, "I'm fine. I know she's only acting out because she's bored. She wants to go home. Otherwise she wouldn't be acting like this."
"And think of the alternative," Iris reminded her, "Think of how much harder your life would be if she didn't like Leonard."
"That's true," Jesse said from the kitchen, "Apparently when my dad started dating again, I was kind of a terror."
"Terror doesn't even start to cover it," Harry replied, "You used quantum physics to explain why I shouldn't have been dating that woman."
"That's not that bad," Jesse waved her hand flippantly.
"Then you set her dress on fire," he finished.
"She wasn't wearing it."
"I really don't think that makes it any better."
"Yeah," Sara agreed with Iris," That's true. She could be taking this whole me-dating-Len thing totally differently. I guess that's what's throwing me off. I'm just waiting for the day she gets all mad at me for being with him — like what you did to your dad, Jesse."
"Hang on," Wells cut in, "These are two very different situations. There's a chance I should have trusted my daughter's intuition slightly more than I did at the time because those women I dated ended up being awful. I wasn't happy while I was dating them and they were wrong for me. You, on the other hand, are clearly very happy and in love with Snart, and Avery senses that. As someone who's been through a similar set of circumstances, let me just say that you've got nothing to worry about."
"She's also four years old," Joe added, "Iris, you don't even remember how awful you were when you were four."
"No, I don't," Iris laughed.
"Convenient," he replied, "If you remembered all embarrassing things you said in front of all my cop buddies, you'd give me a lot more than a card at Father's Day."
"C'mon dad. I wasn't that bad," Iris rolled her eyes.
"Oh, you were," he said pointedly, "but you grew out of it." Joe turned back to Sara. "Kids go through different phases all the time. This is one of them, and soon she'll grow out of it and you'll have a whole different thing to stress out about. Trust me."
Sara nodded, feeling decidedly reassured.
A few minutes later, Leonard and Lisa returned to the cabin from getting groceries.
"Lenny!" Avery screeched, running down the porch steps to greet him.
"Hey kiddo," he said, swinging her into his arms, "Did you have a good nap?"
"Uh-huh," she nodded, pushing her wild curls away from her eyes, "Can we do the daily bubble?"
"Sure," he nodded, putting her back on the ground.
"Lisa!" Avery called over her shoulder as she pulled Leonard up the porch steps, "Come watch!"
Lisa dropped the grocery bags she'd been carrying back into the trunk of the car and followed them up the porch steps.
The daily bubble wand and container were on a wicker side table on the wooden deck. Leonard picked up the pink wand out of the plastic container. Lisa lifted Avery up so she was sitting on her arms.
"Ready?" Leonard asked, standing at the bottom of the steps.
"Yeah!" Avery nodded vigorously.
"One…" They started counting when the bubble was in the air.
"Two…"
"Three…"
The bubble hit a flowering tree and popped right before they could say four.
"Another one," Avery requested.
"Only one a day or it's not special," Leonard answered, dropping the bubble wand back on the wicker table, "Where's your mom?"
"She's inside," Avery answered. "Uncle Tommy was on TV and everyone was watching him."
"Do you remember what he said?" he asked, knowing full well that he'd probably be asking Sara the same thing.
"Um," she looked to the sky and furrowed her eyebrows in thought, "Oh yeah, he said that it was Uncle Malcolm's fault that the city blew up and that his company is gonna fix everything for us."
"Okay," he replied. He did have a few follow-up questions, but for the most part, he was pretty impressed by Avery' comprehension of Tommy Merlyn's message. In fact, he was impressed by Avery's comprehension of everything that had happened over the past few days. He'd had to keep reminding himself that even four-year-olds were capable of understanding things like this.
"Come help me with the groceries," he said, "Then we can go see your mom."
He gave her the two lightest bags and a carton of milk and followed her into the house.
"Mommy!" Avery called from the top floor, "Lenny and Lisa are back!"
"Did you do the daily bubble?" Sara asked. She turned in her seat and watched Avery carefully nod as she made her slow descent down the stairs, "How many seconds did you get?"
"Three," she answered.
"Well then, maybe you shoulda had me do it instead," Sara said pointedly.
"That sounds like excellent parenting," she heard Leonard comment from the floor above.
"That's what I was going for," she called back.
He appeared at the top of the stairs, laden with grocery bags.
"There's the sarcasm I know and love," he said sardonically. She matched his smirk in return.
He moved all the groceries to the kitchen and then sat on the couch next to Sara, draping an arm across her shoulders.
"I heard Tommy was on the news," he said. Sara nodded, "Say anything interesting?"
"Well, it seems like Merlyn Global Group will be completely paying for damages, no questions asked," she answered, "The news is saying that restoration projects will be starting as early as tomorrow. They're asking for volunteers. We should go help out."
"Yeah, we should," he agreed.
So that's exactly what they did. The next day, bright and early, they all headed down to Central City to help fix what had been damaged the night the Markov device went off.
They helped clean up debris around the city and organized materials to rebuild things that had been broken. Even Avery helped plant new flowers in parks whose plants had been uprooted.
The long days of work proved to be too much for Avery, who still couldn't even go a whole day without a nap, never mind a whole day of strenuous work. They all continued to help out in the weeks that followed, but most of the time, they went down in groups, a few people going to Central City and the rest staying with Avery at the safe house.
One day, a little over a month after the Markov Device went off. The whole group was going to head down to the city again.
"I don't wanna go!" Avery said.
"Ave, we don't have time for this. Everyone's waiting," Sara said, "Let's go."
"It's gonna rain!"
"I checked the weather three times, Avery. I promise it's not gonna rain."
"I don't wanna go," she repeated.
"Avery," Sara groaned, looking up at the ceiling.
"I can stay here with her," Leonard volunteered.
"You don't have to," Sara replied.
"No, I don't mind," he shook his head, "Besides, I think it's gonna rain too."
"See!" Avery exclaimed.
Leonard smirked at Sara's exasperated expression.
"You're just egging her on," she told him.
"Lenny said he'd stay so I can stay too, right?" Avery asked.
"I guess," Sara gave in, "But you better be so good for him while I'm gone. He'll tell me if you aren't."
She bent down and scooped Avery up, kissing her cheek.
"Are you gonna be back for movie night?" Avery asked, playing with strands of her mother's hair.
"I'm gonna try so hard to be back in time but if I'm not, you can watch with Len and we'll have our own special movie night tomorrow," Sara replied. Avery nodded.
She set her back on the ground and looked to Leonard
"Thanks for doing this," she said gratefully, "We shouldn't be back too late."
"Unless it rains," he smirked.
"Unless it rains," she repeated, rolling her eyes.
She stood on her toes and kissed him.
"Be careful out there," he murmured against her lips.
"You don't have to worry about me."
"I know I don't," he replied, "But I do anyway."
She stepped away from Leonard and gave Avery one last kiss on the cheek.
"Thanks again for doing this," she told him, smoothing a hand over Avery's hair.
"Don't worry about it," he said, "I don't mind."
He was actually grateful for the reason to stay. He'd been searching for a time to be alone with Avery for a while now, but with all the people who were living in the cabin at one time, an opportunity had never presented itself. Now he'd get his chance.
Sara and the others left a few minutes later.
"What do you want to do?" Leonard asked Avery after they'd watched the cars drive away.
"Can we go down to the beach?" she asked.
"Yeah, go get a swimsuit on," he replied, nodding.
They went back inside the house and he sat on the couch and waited as she went into her room and changed. She returned a few moments later in a floral swimsuit with pink ruffles. One strap was dangling off her arm and the other had been pulled over her head.
"I don't think it did it right," she said.
"You're so close," he said as he fixed the straps so they formed an X-shaped cross in the back.
"Can you put my hair up?" she asked, handing him a blue hair tie and a brush. He took them and she turned around.
As he ran the brush through her hair, she leaned against his legs, her hands absently tapping on his knees.
Leonard wasn't too bad at fixing hair. He'd done Lisa's hair when they were much younger, but the last time he'd done that must have been at least twenty years ago, and anyway, her hair hadn't been nearly as curly as Avery's, but he did manage to get her hair brushed and into a decent bun pretty quickly.
"Let's go!" Avery said urgently.
"Alright, alright," Leonard replied, getting to his feet.
They went back inside and walked a couple minutes down the road until they reached a staircase that led to the little beach down below.
"Be careful on the stairs, Ave," Leonard said, holding tightly onto her hand as they walked down the narrow wooden steps.
Once they were down, Avery kicked off her sandals and started wading in the teal-colored water.
"Not too deep," Leonard reminded her. He was standing ankle deep in the cool bay with his black jeans rolled up.
He watched her paddle in the shallow water for a few minutes before getting to why he'd wanted to spend time with Avery in the first place.
"So Avery," he began, feeling a nervousness in his chest he'd never felt before, "You know I'm dating your mom, right?"
"Mmm-hmm," she said, looking up at him to nod before turning back to the water.
"And you're okay with that?"
"Yeah," she said, "Mommy's so happy now. Ooh, look — fishes!"
Avery started to follow a little fish through the water.
"Okay, so you're okay with me dating your mom," he continued, "Would you be okay if I married your mom? I know we haven't been together long and it's all been so fast but—"
"I'd be super okay with that!" Avery screeched, flinging water into the air in excitement.
"You would?" Leonard replied, feeling as if a weight had been lifted off of his chest.
"Yeah!" she exclaimed, "But only if I'm invited to the wedding, 'cos when Auntie Laurel got married, she didn't invite me."
"I don't think you were born yet," Leonard told her, thinking back to conversations he'd had with Sara, "But I promise you will be invited."
"Yay!" Avery said happily, hopping around in the water and creating circular ripples around her.
She straightened up and met Leonard's eyes.
"I have a question," she said.
"Shoot."
"If mommy is my mommy and if you marry her, does that make you my daddy?"
"They call that a stepfather," he told her.
"But could I call you daddy?"
Leonard didn't immediately respond. The answer that immediately came to mind was yes, he did want her to call him dad, but he also knew that this wasn't entirely his choice.
"I think you should talk to your mom about that," he finally said, "But not yet. You can't tell her any of what we talked about. It won't be special if it isn't a surprise."
"Okay," she nodded.
"Promise?"
"Promise," she repeated seriously.
They stayed by the lake for a little while before they headed back to the cabin. By the time they returned and Avery changed into dry clothes, it was time for lunch.
When they sat down to eat, Avery began asking question after question about Leonard marrying her mom.
"Are you gonna live with us after you get married?"
"Yeah."
"What about before?"
"Maybe. We're living together now, aren't we."
"Kinda. It doesn't really count. Will we live in your apartment or mine?"
"I don't know yet."
"Can my stuffed animals come to the wedding?"
"Maybe just pick your favorite one."
"What about Lisa?"
"You're gonna need to be more specific."
"Is mommy gonna marry her too?"
"No, probably not."
"Who's Lisa gonna marry?"
"I don't know yet."
"Do you think Lisa's gonna marry Cisco?"
"I'd rather not think about it."
"Will Lisa move in with us too?"
"I don't think so."
That continued for a long time.
After Avery was done eating and Leonard was cleaning up the kitchen, he asked her a question of his own.
"Avery," he said, "Do you think your mom will say yes when I ask her to marry me?"
"Yeah!" Avery replied, "'Cause she loves you a whole lot. She told me so."
Around five o'clock, they heard thunder rumbling in the distance and saw flashes of lightning illuminating the sky.
"It's gonna rain," Avery said matter-of-factly as she ate her dinner of mac-and-cheese and dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets.
"I think you might be right," Leonard replied.
A few minutes later, his phone rang.
"Sara," he said when he picked up.
"Hey," she replied, "So there's a storm right over the city right now and it's holding all the projects up. I think we're gonna end up being a couple hours late."
"So it did rain," Leonard smirked.
"I know," she groaned, "Ave's never gonna let me forget it. By the way, tell her I'm sorry for missing movie night, but I'll probably be back in time to put her to bed."
Avery was a little disappointed when he told her Sara would be late, but she bounced back quickly.
"That means I get two movie nights instead of one," she said gleefully.
Thunder rolled over the sky. Leonard looked out the window to see a deep green sky with black clouds in the distance. The rain in Central City was headed for them.
"Avery, let's go on the porch," he said. He took her hand and led her upstairs to the back deck, the one that overlooked the Central City Bay.
"Why?" Avery asked.
"We're gonna storm-watch," he replied, "Lisa and I did this when we were younger."
Truthfully, storm-watching was what Lisa and Leonard would do when they were hiding in a locked bathroom in their rundown childhood home. Their father was often even worse than usual during thunderstorms. He drank more, yelled louder, and hit harder, his actions masked by the noise of the storm. Leonard and Lisa would watch the storm makes its way across the sky from the tiny bathroom window as they waited for their father to either pass out on the couch or leave the house, making his way to the nearest bar he could find.
But Avery didn't need those details.
She climbed up onto the couch and sat cross-legged on the cushions, Leonard sitting beside her.
Avery watched the storm with tentative fascination. She laughed with glee when the rain began, first just a drizzle, but quickly becoming a downpour.
"I told Mommy it would rain!" she said, "I told her!"
Her eyes lit up with every bolt of lightning, but she jumped every time it thundered, the low rumbles becoming booming crashes. Soon, she had climbed into his lap, holding his hands so his arms wrapped around her middle, and playing with his fingers.
When the storm was right overhead and wind started to blow rain onto the porch, they went inside.
"Ready to watch a movie?" Leonard asked, sitting on the couch.
"Yeah," Avery said, climbing up next to him and sticking her thumb in her mouth, "Can we watch Tinkerbell again?"
"Didn't you watch Tinkerbell yesterday?" he reminded her, "Don't you want to watch something new?"
"But I dunno what to watch," she replied.
Leonard thought for a moment.
"Have you ever heard of Narnia?" he asked. She shook her head, "It's a book series that I read to Lisa when we were kids — I think I might have some of the books here, actually. Anyway, they made some into movies and they're pretty good."
"Okay," Avery agreed.
Sara and the others returned to the cabin a few minutes after the movie ended. Leonard was leaning back on the couch with Avery on his chest. The end credits of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe were still rolling across the screen.
"I told you it would rain!" Avery screeched when they all walked downstairs, drenched from the storm outside, "I told you!"
"Yes, Avery, you were right," Sara said, brushing strands of damp hair out of her eyes, "I should have listened to you."
"Do you want to show your mom what we worked on today?" Leonard asked her. He turned to Sara, "I taught her a knock-knock joke."
"It's really funny!" Avery piped up, "Mommy, knock-knock — who's there?"
"Wait no," Leonard interrupted, laughing, "You just say knock-knock. She says who's there."
"Oh yeah," she said, "Mommy, knock-knock."
"Who's there?" Sara asked dutifully.
"Canoe."
"Canoe who?"
"Do you wanna play with my canoe?"
Sara furrowed her eyebrows as Leonard burst out laughing.
"Avie, no, that's not the punchline," he said. He leaned over and whispered something in her ear. Avery giggled and and turned back to her mother.
"Knock-knock," she began the joke again.
"Who's there?" Sara repeated.
"Canoe."
"Canoe who?"
"Canoe play with me?"
Sara laughed at the cheesy joke.
"That's a good one," she said, "I take it you had fun with Lenny. Were you good?"
"Yeah," Avery giggled, smiling angelically. She rolled over so she was splayed across Leonard's chest, her arms wrapped around his neck.
"Why don't you go get your pajamas on and get ready for bed. I'll go in soon to read you some bedtime stories."
Avery nodded and climbed off of Leonard, running to her room.
"So," Sara said, dropping onto the couch next to Leonard as he sat up, "How was she really?"
"She was good," he replied truthfully, "She even napped for a while."
"Wow," Sara said, impressed, "How'd you make that happen?"
"We went down to the beach for a while. I think that might have drained some energy out of her," he replied, "How's Central City? Is everything coming together?"
"For the most part. We had to call Tommy in because some builder wanted to put the Merlyn Global Group logo on something they were rebuilding, which is exactly what Malcolm wanted."
"She screamed at him," Lisa commented as she walked into the kitchen, "He looked terrified. We were all thoroughly entertained."
"Tommy took care of it," Sara finished.
"So he's following through on his promise?" Leonard asked.
"Looks like it," she replied, "Joe said we can go back home soon. Our side of the city hasn't needed a lot of construction. Oh, I forgot to mention, Merlyn escaped."
"What?"
"Yeah, apparently he broke out of prison last night, but the cops caught him this afternoon on a bus to Coast City of all places."
"I'm sure he thought he deserved a break after all the hard work he put in destroying half a city," he said sarcastically.
"Yeah, well he's in a maximum security cell now and they're considering not even bringing him to trial."
"Can they do that?" he asked skeptically.
"I dunno, but I'm not complaining."
"Mommy!" Avery ran into the room, now in a pair of pajamas and carrying her bunny blanket, "I'm ready for bed."
"Did you brush your teeth?"
"Yeah."
Sara narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
"You weren't gone for very long. Are you sure?"
Avery started to giggle.
"Avery has a tell," Sara told Leonard, "Ave, do you know what a tell is?"
"No," Avery shook her head.
"It means that when you're saying something that isn't true, we can tell because you always giggle."
Sara tickled Avery until she shrieked with laughter. She picked her up and got to her feet.
"Time for bed," she said, "Say goodnight to Len."
"Goodnight Lenny!"
"G'night Avery."
After Sara had properly brushed Avery's teeth and gotten her ready to go to sleep, they climbed into her bed, Sara with several bedtime stories in one hand. Just as she cracked one open, Avery started to speak.
"Mommy?" she asked, "Do you think you'll marry Lenny?"
"Marry him?" Sara exclaimed, looking at her daughter in surprise, "Where's this coming from?"
"I dunno," she shook her head, "Would you?"
"Would I marry Len?" Sara asked. Avery nodded, "Well, he'd have to ask me first."
"But if he did ask you and you said yes and you married him, would he be my dad?"
"Well, he'd be your stepdad," Sara corrected her.
"I know!" Avery raised her voice in frustration. Sara raised her eyebrows at her outburst, "But would I call him dad?"
"Oh," Sara said. Now she understood, "Are you a little confused about what's happening?"
As Avery nodded, she scrunched up her face to hide the new tears in her eyes.
"Oh honey, you don't need to cry," she said, putting the book down and pulling Avery into her arms, "It's okay to be confused. What are you confused about?"
Avery buried her face in Sara's shoulder, the fabric muffling her voice.
"I wanna call him daddy, but you don't call Grandma Donna your mom even though she's your step mom," she said.
"That's because they got married when I was a lot older than you. I was so old that you were even at the wedding."
"I was?"
"Yeah. You were only one then, so you don't remember, but you were there. I also already had a mom my whole life: Grandma Dinah. I didn't need another one. Plus, Grandma Donna already has a daughter that calls her mom."
"Auntie Lissy," Avery said.
"That's right, she's Aunt Felicity's mom," she nodded, "But you only have a mommy, so if Lenny's okay with it, you could call him dad because you don't have a dad yet."
Avery nodded.
"But," she continued, "That means sitting down and talking with Lenny about it, so if he doesn't want you to call him dad, that has to be okay, because it's his choice too."
"And if he does, then I can?"
"Well, you'd have to wait until we get married — if we get married, but yes, it would be okay. Does that make sense?"
"Yeah," Avery replied.
"And if you're ever confused about anything, you can always talk to me, okay?"
"Okay."
"I love you so much, Avie."
"I love you too."
With that, Avery fell back onto her pillow, ready for her bedtime stories.
I'm currently upholding a no-schedule policy with this story, so whenever I finish a chapter, I'm publishing it. That means that the next chapter could come in three days or three weeks but just know that I'm always working on this story; my schedule is just iNSANE right now, but I am always working :)